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Blood’s life history traced through genomic scars

Two studies of the mutations acquired by blood-forming cells over time provide insights into the dynamics of blood production in humans and its relationship to ageing.
  1. Aswin Sekar

    1. Aswin Sekar is in the Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.

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  2. Benjamin L. Ebert

    1. Benjamin L. Ebert is in the Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA, and at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston.

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Humans produce roughly two million blood cells each second, derived from a relatively small pool of haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Over a lifetime, each HSC accumulates mutations in its DNA, some of which confer a competitive advantage on the cell and its descendants. The result is a phenomenon known as clonal haematopoiesis, which leads to an expanded pool of blood cells descended from the same HSC. Two studies1,2 in Nature now transform our understanding of the dynamics that underpin clonal haematopoiesis in ageing and cancer development.

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Nature 606, 255-256 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01304-y

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Competing Interests

B.L.E. has received research funding from Celgene, Deerfield, Novartis and Calico, and consulting fees from GRAIL. He is a member of the scientific advisory board and shareholder for Neomorph Therapeutics, TenSixteen Bio, Skyhawk Therapeutics and Exo Therapeutics.

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