About the Branch

The Molecular and Clinical Hematology Branch (MCHB) plans and conducts basic and clinical research on selected inherited and acquired diseases of human blood. Formed in 1998, the MCHB is administratively managed by NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Current Research

The MCHB uses contemporary biochemical, molecular, and physiological techniques. It develops and validates models, including cellular and transgenic systems, to permit the delineation of regulatory mechanisms in normal and pathological hematopoiesis, and to facilitate pharmacological or molecular genetic approaches to correct or compensate for abnormalities associated with disease states. It also expedites the translation of novel basic scientific discovery to the appropriate level of preclinical or clinical investigation.

The ultimate goal of the MCHB is to develop better approaches to diagnose, treat and eventually cure many congenital or acquired disorders of the bone marrow.

An increased understanding of the molecular mechanisms controlling these events would increase our ability to combat selective cytopenias, and could facilitate hematopoietic reconstitution following radiation, chemotherapy, and marrow or peripheral stem cell transplantation. Also, leukemias and lymphomas are usually regarded as hematopoietic cells frozen at various stages of differentiation. Additional insights into the basic mechanism of the differentiation process are important to our understanding of leukemias and lymphomas.