Maria Rostovskaya
Research interests
Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells; mechanisms of stem cell differentiation during development and in vitro; lineage commitment and plasticity of adult stem cells; pluripotency of mouse and human ES cells; genetic modifications of human ES cells.
Mesenchymal stem cells are present in the stroma of bone marrow where they serve two main functions: (1) formation of heamatopoietic-supportive stoma and (2) differentiation into skeletal tissues (Ref. 1, 2). Despite the rapid growth of the field, there are major uncertainties about the whole concept of MSC's. Eventually, the fundamental stem cell properties such as multipotentiality at the single-cell level and self-renewal have never been shown for any stromal cell population in the bone marrow. The main reasons are that in situ observations are restricted by the absence of specific markers, besides in vitro analysis of these cells is complicated by the low proliferation capacity.
To overcome this problem a strategy for reversible, tetracycline-regulated cellular immortalization using SV40 Large T-antigen was developed in our group (Ref. 3). Excellent T-antigen regulation in embryonic stem cells was achieved and subsequently a transgenic mouse line has been established. This system enables a conditional immortalization and expansion of primary cell populations and particularly bone marrow stromal cells obtained from these mice.
Using transgenic T-antigen mice we were able to isolate pure subpopulations of stromal cells from bone marrow with disctinct differentiation potential.
The main aims of the project are (1) to study the mechanisms of the lineage commitment and differentiation of bone marrow MSCs, and (2) to find specific markers characteristic for the distinct subpopulations of stromal cells.
References
1. Pittenger M.F., Mackay A.M., Beck S.C., Jaiswal R.K., Douglas R., Mosca J.D., Moorman M.A., Simonetti D.W., Craig S., Marshak D.R. (1999) Multilineage potential of adult human mesenchymal stem cells. Science. 284, 143-147
2. Sacchetti B., Funari A., Michienzi S., Di Cesare S., Piersanti S., Saggio I., Tagliafico E., Ferrari S., Robey P.G., Riminucci M., Bianco P. (2007) Self-renewing osteoprogenitors in bone marrow sinusoids can organize a hematopoietic microenvironment. Cell. 131, 324-336.
3. Anastassiadis K., Kim J., Daigle N., Sprengel R., Schöler H.R., Stewart A.F. (2002) A predictable ligand regulated expression strategy for stably integrated transgenes in mammalian cells in culture. Gene. 298, 2, 159-172.
Education
2006-2011: PhD student, Engineering of Stem Cells Group, Center for Regenerative Therapies (CRTD), Dresden, Germany.
2002-2004: postgraduate student, Laboratory of Cell Biology, Institute of Molecular Biology RAS), Moscow, Russia.
1997-2002: student, Department of Molecular Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.
Research Experience
2011: Post-Doc. Biotechnology Center (BIOTEC), Technical University of Dresden.
2006, August ? 2011: PhD student. Conditional immortalization using mouse ES cells and mice to study lineage commitment. Scientific supervisor: Dr. Anastassiadis, Engineering of Stem Cells Group, Center for Regenerative Therapies CRTD (scientific supervisor Dr. Anastassiadis), Dresden, Germany.
2001-2002: Diploma research work, Study of interaction of novel retrovirus M813 with sensitive cells. Scientific supervisor: Prof. Prassolov V.S. Laboratory of Cell Biology, Enghelgardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, Russia.
2000-2001: undergraduate research, Isolation of aptamers for the antigen of blood group A by method SELEX. Scientific supervisors: Dr. Korchagina E.Yu., Prof. Bovin N.V. Department of Chemistry of Carbohydrates, Shemyakin and Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, Russia.
1998-1999: undergraduate research, Trophic biology of brown long-eared bat Plecotus auritus (Mammalia, Chiroptera). Scientific supervisor: Dr. Borissenko A.V. Department of Zoology of Vertebrates, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.
