The bone marrow is a bustling neighborhood where red, white, and platelet cells mature. But when communication is thrown off balance, blood production falters, leading to serious disorders and cancer. One such disorder is myelofibrosis (MF), a disease in which the overproduction of fibrous scar tissue cripples bone marrow functioning.
Professor Simón Méndez-Ferrer, a 2024 MPN Challenge award recipient, is a leading authority in MF research, exploring how the bone marrow’s environment shifts from supporting healthy blood production to driving disease. But he’s also an expert in fostering a different kind of healthy environment: a thriving research laboratory built to fight blood cancer.
The environment shapes the disease
Bone marrow niches are composed of blood vessels, bone tissue, innervating nerves, and connective tissue which create pocket environments where stem cells produce blood cells. “We work at the interface between organs — how these organs communicate and how the environment where stem cells live is controlled,” Professor Méndez-Ferrer explains.
His work challenges the longstanding approach that MFs arise solely from genetic mutations in blood stem cells. Instead, his findings demonstrate that the surrounding bone microenvironment (BME) plays a crucial role in either fueling disease or sustaining health. “This place where stem cells reside can be manipulated in a positive way to prevent the development of cancer or improve treatment,” says Dr. Méndez-Ferrer.
Diversity aids production
Much like a healthy bone marrow, where different players work together to maintain balance, Dr. Méndez-Ferrer’s research team thrives on collaboration. His laboratory brings together specialists in hematology, molecular biology, immunology, and vascular biology, blending expertise to tackle complex questions from multiple angles.
“It’s a very exciting ingredient — people coming from different backgrounds, different ways of seeing life and behaving,” he says. This diversity fuels the maturation of ideas and even students in a supportive environment.
When asked which bone marrow cell best described himself, Dr. Méndez-Ferrer did not hesitate with his response: “Definitely mesenchymal stem cell. You know that’s the key cell.” Like these lynchpins of the BME, his role as the lead investigator of a laboratory extends to managing talented individuals, fostering communication within his team and beyond, and adapting.
Where questions proliferate
For Dr. Méndez-Ferrer, scientific progress is not just about following a rigid path — it’s about correcting his course based on new insights. His team is driven by curiosity, a necessity in a field where unexpected results can redefine entire research directions.
“The number one driver for basic scientists is the joy of discovery,” he says. “That can’t happen every day, but when you come to understand a question, you’ve been struggling with for years, that is indescribable.”
Shaping the future of MF research
The MPN Research Foundation is proud to support Dr. Méndez-Ferrer’s work through the 2024 MPN Challenge. His research is advancing the understanding of MF, not just at the level of diseased cells, but within the very environment that harbors them. His work underscores a growing realization in the field: targeting the BME could be just as important as targeting cancerous cells themselves.
Like the bone marrow he studies, Dr. Méndez-Ferrer’s laboratory is a place of dynamic activity, adaptation, and resilience. And just as healthy bone marrow supports life, his research may one day offer new hope to MF patients.
