Dr. Elias Zambidis, a childhood cancer specialist and an expert in bone marrow transplantation, is associate professor of oncology and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a member of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. His research interest is in advancing our understanding of pluripotent stem cells–‘master’ stem cells that can generate any new cell or tissue that the body needs to repair itself.

Dr. Zambidis has been interested in the biology of stem cells since he came to Johns Hopkins, in 2001. As a Pediatric Hematology/Oncology fellow, he was one of the very first Hopkins investigators to work with human embryonic stem cells (hESC’s), beginning shortly after they were made available to the biomedical research community, in 2002. Dr. Zambidis was awarded the first NIH K08 Clinician-Scientist Training Award specifically investigating the therapeutic potential of human pluripotent stem cells (2004), and since then has personally trained over 40 investigators in the science of hESC biology at Johns Hopkins. After joining the Hopkins faculty, in 2005, he developed an experimental model of the early formation process of human blood and blood vessels using human pluripotent stem cells. Today, his lab at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering? continues to find new ways to use special reprogrammed stem cells to treat severe blood-related and vascular diseases. His research team has devised novel methods of generating new blood-forming stem cell lines and new vascular therapies from pluripotent stem cells. Additionally, they are working on cultivating a new generation of stem cells with even greater potency and stronger regenerative capacities.

Visit the Zambidis lab website and learn about its pioneering work on the curative potential of human pluripotent stem cells.

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