Hanna K.A. Mikkola is a new faculty member that joined the Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology/ Jonsson?s Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA in July 2005. Dr. Mikkola earned her MD PhD degrees in 1997 in University of Helsinki, Finland. Her doctorate thesis focused on molecular genetics of a congenital bleeding disorder, factor XIII deficiency. Dr. Mikkola has been interested in stem cell biology since 1998 when she started post-doctoral training in the Department of Gene Therapy and Molecular Medicine in Lund University, Sweden. She developed lentiviral vector based gene transfer protocols for stem cells and showed that these vectors are efficient tools to express transgenes in murine hematopoietic stem cells and ES-cells. In 2000 DR. Mikkola continued her post doctoral training and work with hematopoietic stem cells at Children?s Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School, Boston. Her studies focused on resolving the role of leukemia related transcription factor SCL/tal1 in the development and maintenance of HSCs. Recent studies led by Dr. Mikkola have identified a novel hematopoietic site, the placenta, where HSCs are born and nurtured during early fetal life. At UCLA Dr. Mikkola will continue to pursue to define the molecular programs and microenvironmental cues that direct HSC formation, maturation, and expansion during fetal development.