One of the country’s leading stem cell biologists, Haifan Lin, has been appointed director of the Yale Stem Cell Program effective September 1, Yale School of Medicine Dean Robert Alpern announced this week.

Lin, currently a cell biology professor and co-director and co-founder of the Duke (University) Stem Cell Research Program, will oversee a group of a half-dozen scientists devoted to research into fundamental aspects of stem cell biology. Areas of research will include the properties and mechanisms of human embryonic stem cells, human adult stem cells, and stem cells in model organisms such as mouse, fruit fly and nematode. The program will bring together more than 30 additional faculty members across the medical school and university who are working on stem cell-related topics.

Lin’s research has greatly strengthened understanding of the molecular mechanisms that define the unique behavior of stem cells. His early contributions include identification of stem cells in the Drosophila ovary and establishment of these stem cells as an effective model for study. Using this model, Lin obtained direct evidence for the century-old hypothesis for “asymmetric division” of stem cells, which allows them both to self-renew and to produce differentiated daughter cells.

He was also the first to identify and name “niche signaling cells” in the fly model and has been a key player in systematically demonstrating the longstanding “stem cell niche theory” on the essential role of microenvironment signaling in stem cells self-renewal. In the process, Lin discovered key genes involved in both niche signaling and intracellular regulation of stem cell division.

The Yale Stem Cell Program will grow over the next few years with the recruitment of four additional faculty members and an administrative and technical staff. Three initial core facilities are planned: a human embryonic stem cell culture core laboratory directed by Lin and Krause; a cell sorting core directed by Mark Shlomchik, M.D., professor of laboratory medicine and immunobiology, and a confocal microscopy core directed by Michael Nathanson, M.D., professor of medicine and cell biology.

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