Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers have used a colorful cell-labeling technique to track the development of the blood system and trace the lineage of adult blood cells traveling through the vast networks of veins, arteries, and capillaries back to their parent stem cells in the marrow.
Developed at Harvard’s Center for Brain Science, the technique involves coding multiple colors of fluorescent protein into a cell’s DNA. As genes recombine inside the cell, the cell elaborates a color unique to its genetic code. For blood stem cells, that color becomes a genetic signature passed down to daughter cells; purple stem cells, for example, will only make purple blood cells.
