Laura Bennett, Ph.D., joins The Jackson Laboratory as an Assistant Professor in August 2026. She received her Ph.D. in Genetics at The Pennsylvania State University, where she investigated how inflammation shapes red blood cell production. Bennett completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania in the laboratory of Nancy A. Speck, a leader in hematopoietic stem cell biology, focusing on the earliest stages of blood stem cell development. Her research spans genetics, developmental biology, and hematology, with a focus on understanding how complex signaling environments control cell fate decisions.
The Bennett Lab studies how hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs)—rare, self-renewing cells that sustain lifelong blood and immune system production—arise during embryonic development and how these processes can be leveraged for regenerative medicine. HSCs originate from specialized endothelial cells in the embryo through a tightly regulated transition involving intermediate precursor populations. A central focus of the lab is understanding how these precursors, known as pre-HSCs, are specified and mature into fully functional, transplantable stem cells. Because these cells are exceedingly rare and transient, defining the signals that govern their maturation remains one of the major challenges in the field.
Bennett’s work has identified a critical role for TGF β/BMP signaling in regulating this transition. Her studies showed that inhibition of TGF β/BMP signaling by the intracellular regulator SMAD7 is required for pre-HSCs to mature into HSCs. Loss of SMAD7 leads to excessive TGF β/BMP pathway activity, which blocks the maturation process without broadly disrupting the formation of other blood progenitor cells. This discovery established one of the first signaling pathways shown to act specifically at the level of HSC maturation, rather than earlier stages of hematopoietic development, providing a new conceptual framework for understanding how functional stem cells are generated.
Building on this foundation, the Bennett Lab seeks to define how TGF β/BMP signaling interfaces with other developmental and cellular pathways to regulate stem cell emergence. Ongoing efforts integrate single-cell transcriptomics, clonal barcoding approaches, and sophisticated genetic models to map the molecular trajectories of pre-HSCs and identify additional regulators of their maturation and function.
The lab also investigates how early developmental perturbations influence the lifelong behavior of the hematopoietic system, including stem cell self-renewal, lineage output, and predisposition to disease. By linking embryonic stem cell formation to adult hematopoiesis and malignancy, this work aims to uncover mechanisms relevant to disorders such as anemia, bone marrow failure, and leukemia.
Recent publications
Bennett LF, Yu W, Chen C-H, An HH, Tober J, Tan K, Speck NA. Restraint of TGFβ signaling by SMAD7 is necessary for the maturation of hematopoietic stem cells in the mouse embryo. bioRxiv. August 2025. doi: 10.1101/2025.08.23.671940
Bennett LF, Mumau MD, Li Y, Speck NA. MyD88-dependent TLR signaling oppositely regulates hematopoietic progenitor and stem cell formation in the embryo. Development. April 2022.
Zhu Q, Gao P, Tober J, Bennett L, Chen C, Uzun Y, Li Y, Howell ED, Mumau M, Yu W, He B, Speck NA, Tan K. Developmental trajectory of prehematopoietic stem cell formation from endothelium. Blood. August 2020.
Wilken MB, Fonar G, Qiu R, Bennett L, Tober J, Nations C, Pavani G, Tsao V, Garifallou J, Petit C, Maguire JA, Gagne A, Okoli N, Gadue P, Chou ST, French DL, Speck NA, Thom CS. Tropomyosin 1 deficiency facilitates cell state transitions to promote endothelial and hematopoietic progenitor cell development. Stem Cell Reports. September 2024.
Yang Y, Mumau M, Tober J, Zhu Q, Bennett L, Hong C, Sung D, Keller T, Uzun Y, Gao P, Shewale S, Chen M, Yang J, Chen X, Thomas SA, Tan K, Speck NA, Kahn ML. Endothelial MEKK3-KLF2/4 signaling integrates inflammatory and hemodynamic signals during definitive hematopoiesis. Blood. May 2022.