Bulstrode Group

Dr Harry Bulstrode 

Neural stem cells in development, regeneration and cancer

Email: hb252@cam.ac.uk 

Research:

The Bulstrode lab research focuses on stem cells in the human brain and their microenvironment interactions.

Stem cell based treatments offer great promise in neurodegenerative disorders, Parkinson’s Disease in particular. Current work in the lab is focusing on improving survival and engraftment of cell replacements through genetic engineering and pharmacological preconditioning, with a focus on Hypoxia Inducible Factor signalling and cytokine-induced programmed cell death.

Stem cell gene expression programs are also used by the most aggressive and malignant brain tumours including Glioblastoma, to drive growth and invasion. Current work is focused on generating tumour organoids directly from patient tumour samples, then using these to explore the interaction between immune cells and stem cells and to test new drug and genetic treatment approaches, especially targeting the cGAS-STING-Interferon axis.

Finally, with the help of industry partner eg technology, the lab is developing revolutionary Spiramed surgical delivery technology, promising safer, faster delivery of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products including cell therapies to large human brain target volumes.

Key Publications:

• Bulstrode H, Girdler GC, ... Rowitch DH. Myeloid cell interferon secretion restricts Zika flavivirus infection of developing and malignant human neural progenitor cells. Neuron. 2022 Dec 7;110(23):3936-3951.e10. doi: 10.1016/j. neuron.2022.09.002. Epub 2022 Sep 28. PMID: 36174572; PMCID: PMC7615581.
• Bulstrode H, Johnstone E, ... Pollard SM. Elevated FOXG1 and SOX2 in glioblastoma enforces neural stem cell identity through transcriptional control of cell cycle and epigenetic regulators. Genes Dev. 2017 Apr 15;31(8):757773. doi: 10.1101/gad.293027.116. Epub 2017 May 2. PMID: 28465359; PMCID: PMC5435889.
• Marsh SE, ... Bulstrode H, Hutchinson PJ, Gaffney DJ, Hafler DA, Franklin RJM, Macosko EZ, Stevens B. Dissection of artifactual and confounding glial signatures by single-cell sequencing of mouse and human brain. Nat Neurosci. 2022 Mar;25(3):306-316. doi: 10.1038/s41593-022-01022-8. Epub 2022 Mar 8. PMID: 35260865.