Alexander Medvinsky

Prof. Alexander Medvinsky (https://www.ed.ac.uk/regenerative-medicine/research/alexander-medvinsky) graduated from Moscow State University and obtained his PhD at the National Centre for Oncology (Moscow).  In 1985 he joined the National Centre for Haematology, Moscow where he became interested in the development of haematopoietic system.  In 1993 he and his colleagues identified the intra-embryonic site of origin of the adult  haematopoietic system known  now as the aorta-gonad-mesonephros, AGM, region (Medvinsky et al., 1993). He then moved to the National Institute for Medical Research, London, where he investigated functional properties of the AGM region and showed that AGM region possesses an autonomous capacity to generate HSCs.  In 1997, he was awarded an MRC Senior Fellowship and established his research group in the University of Edinburgh (Institute for Stem Cell Research). In 2006 he was appointed Professor in Haematopoietic Stem Cell Biology and during 2012-2015 he was named Head of the Institute for Stem Cell Research. The main focus of his laboratory is in the mechanisms underlying the embryonic development of haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in both the mouse and the human. They develop and extensively use quantitative methods and analytical systems recapitulating HSC development ex vivo to gain in-depth insight into the mechanisms underlying this process.