Year 1

We are working on developing better treatments for patients with genetic stem cell disorders. Our strategy is to treat fetuses before birth with stem cell transplantation in order to induce tolerance to the foreign transplanted cells and avoid immunosuppression. We have noted that the mother’s immune system is involved in rejecting the cells that are transplanted into the fetus and are now studying how the fetal immune system responds to the transplant. This year, we learned that the fetal immune system becomes aware of the transplanted cells as early as 2 weeks after the transplant. However, T cells that would react to the transplant are also deleted, which is one way that the fetus learns to tolerate the foreign cells. We are also analyzing immune development in human patients who undergo fetal surgery. In our analysis of human patients, we learned that open fetal surgery increases the amount of maternal cells that have trafficked into the fetus. We are now studying whether the fetus becomes sensitized or tolerant to these maternal cells after surgery.