In this week's episode, Blood editor Dr. Laurie Sehn interviews Drs. Reuben Kapur and Robert Campbell on their latest articles published in Blood. This episode highlights two groundbreaking studies exploring how inflammation drives serious blood and immune-related diseases. In the first interview, Dr. Kapur discusses how inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can both promote and worsen clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP), with large-scale human data and mouse models identifying REF1 as a key mediator and potential therapeutic target. The second segment features Dr. Campbell, who explains how heme released during malaria infection activates platelet mTOR signaling, intensifying cerebral malaria and suggesting new avenues for platelet-targeted treatments. Together, the conversations reveal how inflammatory pathways and immune signaling contribute to disease progression while opening the door to novel precision therapies.

In this week's episode, Blood editor Dr. Laura Michaelis interviews Dr. Alexis Thompson, former ASH president, on her latest article published in Blood. Dr. Thompson discusses "Long-term efficacy and safety results of betibeglogene autotemcel gene therapy for transfusion-dependent β-thalassemia." She explains transfusion-dependent β-thalassemia (TDT) requires rigorous, lifelong transfusion therapy and iron chelation to manage iron overload. Dr. Kwiatkowski and colleagues discuss the long-term efficacy and safety of this gene therapy in 63 patients with TDT, documenting sustained transfusion independence for up to 10 years and a safety profile consistent with that of myeloablative autologous transplantation.

In this week's episode, Blood editor Dr. James Griffin interviews Drs. Francesco Forconi and Bin Guo on their latest articles published in Blood. Dr. Guo shares insights from "Nucleoplasmic ZNF467 condensates boost hematopoietic stem cell engraftment via ICAM1-mediated mechanical reprogramming". The findings establish biomechanical regulation as an important determinant of stem cell identity and reveal new strategies for engineering stem cells with enhanced regenerative capacity. Then, Dr. Forconi discusses "DC-SIGN binding to the surface immunoglobulin oligomannose-type glycans promotes follicular lymphoma cell adhesion and survival". Persistent, low-level BCR engagement by DC-SIGN enables FL tissue retention and survival while avoiding the deleterious proapoptotic consequences of stronger, conventional antigen-driven BCR signaling. These findings help explain how FL cells exploit their microenvironmental niche.

In this week's episode, Blood editor Dr. Laurie Sehn interviews Drs. Shengwen Calvin Li and Hrishi Krishna Srinagesh on their latest articles published in Blood. Dr. Li discusses "Single-cell profiling of ANKRD26 thrombocytopenia reveals progenitor expansion and polyploid apoptosis via JUNB-p21". The study identifies reproducible abnormalities in progenitor expansion and increased apoptosis of polyploid megakaryocytes, and they propose a novel mechanism in which centrosomal over-expression of ANKRD26 drives polyploid megakaryocyte apoptosis through JUNB-mediated induction of p21 transcription. Dr. Srinagesh discusses "Blinatumomab nonresponse correlates with poor survival after brexucabtagene autoleucel in B-cell ALL" in which data collected by the Real-World Outcomes Collaborative of CAR-T in Adult ALL consortium showed that prior nonresponse to blinatumomab was associated with inferior survival after brexucabtagene in comparison to blinatumomab-naïve patients. Early CAR-T responses were uniformly high regardless of prior exposure or response. This highlights that resistance to blinatumomab may identify patients at higher risk of post–CAR T relapse despite excellent initial responses.

In this week's episode, Blood podcast editor Laurie Sehn interviews Drs. Edward Cliff on his latest research published in volume 147 issue 14 of Blood. Dr. Cliff discusses "Global access to commercial CAR T-cell therapies: a cross-sectional study of health technology assessment across the G20 countries" which maps the mismatch between innovation and implementation across high-income and selected-upper-middle-income countries for US Food and Drug Administration–approved products and indications.

In this week's episode, Blood podcast editor Dr. James Griffin interviews authors Drs. Steffen Boettcher and Robert Zeiser on their recent publications in Blood. Dr. Boettcher discusses "Bone marrow failure, somatic rescue by p53 inactivation, and enhanced leukemogenesis in germ line ERCC6L2 disease", which provides insights to disease evolution by demonstrating that p53 loss can rescue BMF phenotypes caused by biallelic mutations in ERCC6L2, but at the cost of profound genome instability, increasing DNA damage and leading to the onset of aggressive erythroid leukemia. Dr. Zeiser discusses "Gastrin for the treatment of acute graft-versus-host-disease of the stomach", which delineates the protective role of gastrin in aGVHD of the stomach in mice and patients and provides a rationale for therapeutic use of pentagastrin in a clinical trial for patients with aGVHD.

In this episode, Blood Associate Editor Dr. Jason Gotlib discusses the Review Series "The New Wave of Targeted Therapeutics for MPN’s", with authors Drs. Stefan Constantinescu, Ann Mullally, and Marina Kremyanskaya. This Review Series covers 3 areas where exciting advances are occurring. Dr. Constantinescu discusses “Next-generation JAK inhibitors in the treatment of myeloproliferative neoplasms” which describes how new ways to switch off JAK signaling are delivering a suite of new small-molecule drugs with potential. Dr. Mullally discusses “Novel strategies targeting mutant calreticulin in essential thrombocythemia and myelofibrosis” which reviews the biology of calreticulin mutations in myelofibrosis and ET and how multiple different modalities can be brought to bear against this mutant surface protein, including monoclonal antibodies, bispecific T-cell engagers, and cellular and vaccine therapies. Dr. Kremyanskaya discusses “Modulators of the hepcidin pathway in polycythemia vera and myelofibrosis” which outlines the major recent progress being made in controlling excessive erythropoiesis through pharmacological modulation of iron metabolism.

In this week's episode, Blood editor Dr. Laura Michaelis interviews Drs. Alexander Bick and Jorge Cortes on their latest papers published in Blood. Dr. Cortes, the current EIC of Blood Global Hematology discusses "Asciminib Demonstrates Superior Efficacy and Safety in Newly Diagnosed Chronic Myeloid Leukemia in the ASC4FIRST Trial" wherein the planned secondary analysis showed a further efficacy advantage and a consistently favorable safety profile for asciminib relative to investigator-selected TKIs, especially second-generation TKIs. Dr. Bick discusses "Increased prevalence of clonal hematopoiesis in children with sickle cell disease" where targeted sequencing for CH mutations in 2318 children with SCD and 2957 controls and found that children with SCD have a higher prevalence of CH, and majority of CH cases identified were very small “micro-CH” clones, more work is needed to define the clinical significance of these clones.