The Trowbridge laboratory is located at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. We focus on understanding the biology of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), which sustain the mammalian blood system throughout life.

Our laboratory strives to how the HSC population is altered in the process of biological aging (including cell-intrinsic changes and changes in the bone marrow microenvironment where these cells reside, see Figure below), how and why seemingly benign somatic mutations in epigenetic regulatory genes are selected for in the HSC population with aging (termed clonal hematopoiesis), and the mechanisms by which, and extent to which, clonal hematopoiesis modifies risk of development of blood cancers including myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Our long-term goal is to identify new intervention strategies to extend the “healthspan” of HSCs by maintaining their robust regeneration capacity into older age and reducing risk of development of blood cancers.