Gay Crooks MBBS

Contact Information
Gay Crooks, M.B.B.S.
UCLA Path & Lab Med
Box 951732, TLSB 3014
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Office: (310) 206-0205
Lab: (310) 825-3535
[email protected] 

Academic Title
Professor, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine

Research Interest
Our research program is known for discoveries of how human hematopoietic stem cells can be isolated and manipulated to improve the results of transplantation. In more recent years, the research program has reached into two other related areas. First, the lab is uncovering how stem cells produce a new immune system as they develop in the thymus and how this process might be improved. Second, the lab is developing ways to make blood and immune cells from human pluripotent stem cells to overcome shortages of matched adult stem cells. 

Bio
Dr Crooks graduated from medical school at the University of Western Australia and completed her FRACP (pediatrics) at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children prior to her fellowship training in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). In 1993, she joined the faculty of the University of Southern California and established her laboratory and clinical programs in the Division of Research Immunology and Bone Marrow Transplantation at CHLA. In 2009 her research program moved to UCLA, where in addition to running her research program, Dr. Crooks is a pediatric bone marrow transplant physician in the Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at Mattel's Children's Hospital, UCLA.

Publications
Kohn LA, Hao QL, Sasidharan R, Parekh C, Ge S, Zhu Y, Mikkola HK, Crooks GM Lymphoid priming in human bone marrow begins before expression of CD10 with upregulation of L-selectin. Nat Immunol. online 2012; doi: 10.1038/ni.2405 

Cuddihy AR, Ge S, Zhu J, Jang J, Chidgey A, Thurston G, Boyd R, Crooks GM VEGF-Mediated cross-talk within the neonatal murine thymus. Blood 2009; 113(12): 2723-2731. 

Abdel-Azim H, Zhu Y, Hollis R, Wang X, Ge S, Hao QL, Smbatyan G, Kohn DB, Rosol M, and Crooks GM Expansion of multipotent and lymphoid-committed human progenitors through intracellular dimerization of Mpl. Blood 2008; 111(8): 4064-4074. 

Hao QL, George AA, Zhu Y, Barsky LW, Zielinska E, Wang X, Price M, Ge Shundi, Crooks GM Human intrathymic lineage commitment is marked by differential CD7 expression: Identification of CD7neg lympho-myeloid thymic progenitors. Blood 2008; 111(3): 1318-1326. 

Evseenko D, Schenke-Layland K, Dravid G, Zhu Y, Hao QL, Scholes J, Wan XC, MacLellan R, Crooks GM Identification of the critical extracellular matrix proteins that promote human embryonic stem cell assembly. Stem Cells and Development 2008; 18(6): 919-928. 

Wang X, Rosol M, Ge S, Petersen D, McNamara G, Pollack H, Kohn DB, Nelson MD, Crooks GM Dynamic tracking of human hematopoietic stem cell engraftment using in vivo bioluminescence imaging. Blood 2003; 102(10): 3478-3482. 

Hao QL, Zhu J, Price MA, Payne KJ, Barsky LW, Crooks GM Identification of a novel, human multi-lymphoid progenitor in cord blood. Blood 2001; 97(12): 3683-3690. 

Case SS, Price MA, Jordan CT, Yu XJ, Wang L, Bauer G, Haas DL, Xu D, Stripecke R., Naldini L, Kohn DB, and Crooks GM Stable transduction of quiescent CD34+CD38-human hematopoietic cells by HIV-1 based lentiviral vectors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 1999; 96(6): 2988-2993. 

Hao QL, Smogorzewska EM, Barsky LW, Crooks GM In Vitro Identification of Single CD34+CD38 Cells With Both Lymphoid and Myeloid Potential. Blood 1998; 91(11): 4145-4151. 

Hao QL, Thiemann FT, Petersen D, Smogorzewska EM, Crooks GM Extended long term culture reveals a highly quiescent and primitive human hematopoietic progenitor population. Blood 1996; 88(9): 3306-3313. 

Shah AJ, Smogorzewska EM, Hannum C, Crooks GM Flt3 Ligand Induces Proliferation of Quiescent Human Bone Marrow CD34+CD38-Cells and Maintains Progenitor Cells In Vitro. Blood 1996; 87(9): 3563-3570. 

Andrade Jacob, Ge Shundi, Smbatyan Goar, Rosol Michael S, Olch Arthur J, Crooks Gay M Effects of sublethal irradiation on patterns of engraftment after murine bone marrow transplantation.. Biology of blood and marrow transplantation : journal of the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. 2011; 17(5): 608-19. 

Dravid Gautam G, Crooks Gay M The challenges and promises of blood engineered from human pluripotent stem cells.. Advanced drug delivery reviews. 2011; 63(4-5): 331-41. 

Crooks Gay M Lineage assays: which pathway to take?. Blood. 2011; 117(9): 2560. 

Dravid G, Zhu Y, Scholes J, Evseenko D, Crooks GM Dysregulated Gene Expression During Hematopoietic Differentiation From Human Embryonic Stem Cells . Molecular Therapy 2010; . 

Evseenko D, Zhu Y, Schenke-Layland K, Kuo J, Latour B, Ge, S, Dravid G, Li X, MacLellan WR, Crooks GM Mapping the First Stages of Mesoderm Commitment During Differentiation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2010; 107(31): 13742-7.