Bio

A/Prof. Ito performed postdoctoral training with Prof. Toshio Suda of Keio University and Pier Paolo Pandolfi of Harvard Medical School before joining the Albert Einstein faculty in 2012. He has made major contributions to our understanding of haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and leukemogenesis. Research goals of the Ito Lab include the characterisation of regulatory pathways controlling HSC maintenance and the development of novel therapeutics for hematopoietic disorders. A core interest of his group is the process of stem cell division and the resulting balance between self-renewal and differentiation, which directly impacts tissue homeostasis. More recently, his work has explored the therapeutic potential of targeting cellular metabolism in the hematopoietic system and mechanisms of epigenetic-microRNA crosstalk in the pathogenesis of myelodysplastic syndrome. Increased understanding of HSC biology and the bone marrow microenvironment can lead to improvements in efficiency of HSC transplantation and allow development of new treatments for hematologic diseases.

Selected publications:
M. Bonora, K. Ito, C. Morganti, P. Pinton, K. Ito, Membrane-potential compensation reveals mitochondrial volume expansion during HSC commitment. Exp Hematol 68, 30-37 e31 (2018).
K. Ito et al., Self-renewal of a purified Tie2+ hematopoietic stem cell population relies on mitochondrial clearance. Science 354, 1156-1160 (2016).
K. Ito, T. Suda, Metabolic requirements for the maintenance of self-renewing stem cells. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 15, 243-256 (2014).
K. Ito et al., A PML-PPAR-delta pathway for fatty acid oxidation regulates hematopoietic stem cell maintenance. Nat Med 18, 1350-1358 (2012).