UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Robert Paulson, professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, has received a $150,000 Award for Research Careers in Hematology, or ARCH, grant from the American Society of Hematology.
The grant will support Paulson’s ongoing research on stress erythropoiesis, or how the body regulates red blood cell production during illness or injury.
“I’m grateful for this new line of funding, which will allow us to continue investigating signaling pathways involved in stress erythropoiesis,” Paulson said. “These findings could eventually help in developing treatments for sickle cell disease and anemia of chronic disease.”
A healthy person’s bone marrow generates roughly 2.5 million new red blood cells every second — matching the roughly 2.5 million cells that wear out and are removed each second. Paulson said maintaining that balance is critical: too few red blood cells causes anemia, while too many thickens the blood and raises the risk of stroke or heart attack.
But this balance can be disrupted during infection or inflammation from an injury. When the immune system needs to ramp up production of white blood cells to fight infection, red blood cell production is often reduced. To counteract this, the body relies on a compensatory pathway known as stress erythropoiesis, which generates new red blood cells to maintain healthy levels until inflammation subsides.
“This stress response is different from the way your bone marrow makes red blood cells in a steady state,” Paulson said. “During this stress response, your body makes a large number of immature cells that then become mature red blood cells all at once. We’ve identified some signals that are important for how this precise coordination works, and one of them is how the body uses a metabolite called arginine, an amino acid.”
The new funding will allow Paulson and his lab to study arginine metabolism and how it facilitates the switch from immature cells into red blood cells.
The American Society of Hematology is the world’s largest professional society serving clinicians and scientists who study and treat blood disorders. Its ARCH grant program supports established investigators whose research ranges from potential new treatments for acute myeloid leukemia to quality measurement for the treatment of sickle cell disease across a lifespan.