Ihor R. Lemischka was an American stem cell biologist and stem cell research advocate and was both the Lillian and Henry M. Stratton Professor of Gene and Cell Medicine and Director of the Black Family Stem Cell Institute at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.
His work with hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) was the first to identify their novel receptor tyrosine kinases and showed that HSC can rebuild all blood cell types in a mouse whose blood cells had been destroyed.
He authored over 70 book chapters and publications in peer-reviewed journals.Bioconnex.org
Biography
Education and post-doctoral training Lemischka graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1976Mount Sinai School of Medicine – Faculty profile and earned his Ph.D. in biology from MIT in 1983. He did his post-doctoral training at MIT's Whitehead Institute.
Academic appointments Lemischka joined Princeton University in 1986 as Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology; he became Professor in 2002. In 2007, he joined the staff at Mount Sinai Medical Center, where he was Professor of Gene and Cell Medicine and Director of the Black Family Stem Cell Institute.
Affiliations and awards Lemischka was a board member of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) and the New York Stem Cell Foundation. His awards included a Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Postdoctoral, a Leukemia Social Special Fellowship, an American Cyanamid Preceptorship Award and the DuPont Young Faculty Grant. He was a journal reviewer for Cell, Science, Nature, Nature Genetics, Nature Immunology, Nature Biotechnology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Public Library of Science, Development, Genes & Development, Journal of Clinical Investigation and Blood.
Patents Lemischka held or had patents pending for the following: Patent Number Title 7465464 Populations of cells that express flk-2 receptors 7445798 Populations of cells that express FLK-1 receptors 6960446 Method for isolating cells expressing flk-2 6677434 Soluble human flk-2 protein 6613565Use of delta-like protein to inhibit the differentiation of stem cells 5912133 Method for isolating stem cells expressing flk-1 receptors 5747651 Antibodies against tyrosine kinase receptor flk-1 5621090 Nucleic acids encoding soluble human FLK-2 extracellular domain 5548065 Tyrosine kinase receptor human flk-2-specific antibodies 5367057 Tyrosine kinase receptor flk-2 and fragments thereof 5283354 Nucleic acids encoding hematopoietic stem cells receptors flk-1 5270458 Nucleic acids encoding fragments of hematopoietic stem cell receptor flk-2 5185438 Nucleic acids encoding hencatoporetic stem cell receptor flk-2
Areas of concentration Lemischka's interests included defining the cellular and molecular mechanisms that control cell fate decisions in embryonic stem cells. Research into mouse embryonic stem cells was aggressively studied in the embryonic stem cells of humans.
Publications Partial List:
References
External links Mount Sinai Hospital homepage Mount Sinai School of Medicine homepage Control and Regulation of Stem Cells – interview with Catherine Cormier, SciVee Dissecting Cell Fate Regulation in Stem Cells, YouTube Stem Cell Research: An NPR Special Report, National Public Radio Stem Cells Meet Systems Biology, Nature Reports Princeton scientists explore the next frontier of stem cell research, Princeton Weekly Bulletin No Stem Cell Left Behind, New York Times