Tools and Techniques in Experimental Hematology

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editor

Benjamin Weinhaus

Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, Department of Tissue Morphogenesis

Dr. Benjamin Weinhaus is an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in the Department of Tissue Morphogenesis with Professor Ralf Adams. He obtained his PhD in immunology at the University of Cincinnati / Cincinnati Children's Hospital under Professor Daniel Lucas. During his thesis, Dr. Weinhaus developed expertise in creating confocal microscopy tools to understand how the fetal bone marrow forms and functions in the context of hematopoiesis (Weinhaus et al. Nat Commun 2025). He also aided in characterizing the in situ spatial organization of adult bone marrow hematopoiesis during steady-state and acute insult conditions (Zhang et al. Nature 2021; Wu et al. Nature 2024). Prior to earning his PhD, Dr. Weinhaus was a collegiate swimmer at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, where he obtained his bachelor's degree in biology.

Collection Overview

Hematopoiesis, or the production of blood, is a highly regulated process essential for life. Whether studying steady-state hematopoiesis or hematopoiesis in different disease states, investigators can study blood production using a common suite of tools. These tools include flow cytometry to rapidly quantify changes across different hematopoietic cell populations, confocal microscopy to visualize interactions between different cell types within their respective microenvironments, and bone marrow transplantation assays to test stem cell function. Next-generation sequencing, including single-cell RNA sequencing and associated analysis pipelines, has generated even more complex data to assess in addition to the common practices used in experimental hematology.

Implementing these tools, however, can be challenging. What should I consider before conducting an experiment to study hematopoiesis? Which reagents should I use? How should I prepare my samples? What quality-control measures should I plan for? How can I assess the reliability of the data I acquire? How should I troubleshoot when problems arise?

To support the effective implementation of these and other commonly used approaches, we are assembling a collection of methods contributed by leading hematology experts. By outlining experimental design, reagent selection, quality assessment, and troubleshooting strategies, this collection aims to enhance scientific rigor and move the field of experimental hematology forward.