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Blood Builder Lab – Epigenetics of blood formation

Cristina (C) Pina, MD DPhil

We are interested in regulation of cell identity. We investigate epigenetic and transcriptional regulation of normal and leukaemia blood cells, with a particular focus on the generation and maintenance of cell heterogeneity through variability of transcriptional activity, also known as transcriptional noise. We harness mechanisms of cell specification and maintenance of cell identity, to generate physiologically relevant 3D in vitro models of blood formation and study initiation of developmental leukaemias.

Collaboration partners

  • Gerald de Haan (Sanquin)
  • Anna Bigas (HMRIB)
  • Cecilia Sahlgren (Abo Akademi; TU/Eindhoven)
  • Victor Hernandez, Sabrina Tosi and Alessandro Esposito (Brunel University)
  • Stefaan Verbruggen (QMUL)
  • Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo and Alfonso Martinez Arias (UPF)

Several group members will start in the second half of 2025. A number of group members are working from the UK.

Group members working in the UK

  • Ayona Johns – PhD candidate
  • Denise Ragusa – post-doc
  • Holly Davison – PhD candidate
  • Alba Cedillo Anether – PhD candidate
  • Emily Johnson  - MPhil candidate 
Groupleader

Cristina (C) Pina, MD DPhil

Cristina Pina

Research lines
  • Gastruloid models of blood development
  • Cellular origin of infant leukaemia
  • Transcriptional variability and epigenetic control of blood formation
  • Gene regulatory networks of blood stem cell emergence

Key publications
  • Ragusa et al, Dissecting infant leukemia developmental origins with a hemogenic gastruloid model. eLife 2025; abstract
  • Pina, Contributions of transcriptional noise to leukaemia evolution. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B.2024; 379: 20230052. abstract
  • Ragusa et al, Engineered model of t(7;12)(q36:p13) AML recapitulates patient-specific features and gene expression profiles. Oncogenesis 2022; 11:50. abstract
  • Gupta et al, Transcriptional variability accelerates pre-leukaemia by cell diversification and perturbation of protein synthesis. Sci Adv 2022; 8: eabn4886. abstract
  • Domingues et al, Loss of Kat2a enhances transcriptional noise and depletes acute myeloid leukemia stem-like cells. eLife 2020. 9: e51754. abstract
  • Pina et al, Ddit3 is a nodal regulator of erythron-myeloid lineage specification. Cell Rep 2015. abstract
  • Pina et al, Inferring rules of lineage commitment in haematopoiesis. Nat Cell Biol 2012. 14: 287-294. abstract

Funding
  • ERC Synergy Grant 2025

In the UK

  • C3Rs
  • CCLG/Little Princess Trust
Group members

Cristina (C) Pina, MD DPhil

Group leader
Cristina Pina