Eric Pietras, PhD
Associate Professor, Medicine-Hematology

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Graduate School :
  • PhD, University of California, Los Angeles (2008)
Undergraduate School:
  • BA, Knox College (IL) (2001)
Languages: English
Department: Medicine-Hematology

Recognition & Awards

  • Outstanding Early Career Scholar, CU Department of Medicine (2019)
    The goal of the Outstanding Early Career Scholar Program is to allow successful early career faculty to develop new lines of investigation to expand the scope of their research enterprise.
  • Endowed Chair in Hematology Research, Cleo Meador/George Ryland Scott (2018)
    In academic medicine, endowed chairs are honors created by philanthropic funds to provide stable, long-term positions for highly accomplished scientists. This position recognizes Dr. Pietras' excellence in pushing forward the field of hematologic oncology and cancer clinical trials.
  • Webb-Waring Early Career Investigator Award, Boettcher Foundation (2017)
    The Webb-Waring Early Career Investigator Award is designed to help promising biomedical researchers establish their research and become competitive for major awards from federal and private sources. Awardees are granted the title of Boettcher Investigator and are awarded grands of $235,000 for up to three years of research.

Research Interests

The mammalian blood system is a complex tissue that regulates multiple physiological processes including oxygen and nutrient delivery, wound clotting, and defense against infection and other physiological insults via the specialized cells of the immune system. All lineages of blood cells, including those of the immune system, are produced by rare hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) lodged in the bone marrow, which first generate the blood system during embryonic development and subsequently provide for lifelong blood homeostasis. While much is known about the processes that shape the blood system during homeostasis, less is understood about how this complex tissue responds dynamically to stress. Dr. Pietras’ R01-funded research program focuses on understanding how inflammation, the physiological process initiated by these insults, shapes the blood system by impacting the fate decisions made by HSCs. He is also interested in the molecular and functional consequences, both for HSCs and the blood system at large, of long-term exposure to pro-inflammatory factors in the context of chronic inflammatory diseases and hematological malignancy. The goal of his research is to understand how these factors may reprogram HSCs to make blood in a deregulated fashion that could impact inflammatory diseases and leukemia development, and to identify potential therapeutic targets that can restore normal HSC function in human patients.

Publications

  • Mitchell CA, Verovskaya EV, Calero-Nieto FJ, Olson OC, Swann JW, Wang X, Hérault A, Dellorusso PV, Zhang SY, Svendsen AF, Pietras EM, Bakker ST, Ho TT, Göttgens B, Passegué E. Stromal niche inflammation mediated by IL-1 signalling is a targetable driver of haematopoietic ageing. Nat Cell Biol. 2023 Jan;25(1):30-41. PubMed PMID: 36650381
  • Alkhani A, Korsholm C, Levy CS, Mohamedaly S, Duwaerts CC, Pietras EM, Nijagal A. Neonatal Hepatic Myeloid Progenitors Expand and Propagate Liver Injury in Mice. J Clin Med. 2023 Jan 1;12(1). PubMed PMID: 36615137
  • Li J, Malouf C, Miles LA, Willis MB, Pietras EM, King KY. Chronic inflammation can transform the fate of normal and mutant hematopoietic stem cells. Exp Hematol. 2023 Nov;127:8-13. PubMed PMID: 37647982
  • Gurule NJ, Malcolm KC, Harris C, Knapp JR, O'Connor BP, McClendon J, Janssen WJ, Lee FFY, Price C, Osaghae-Nosa J, Wheeler EA, McMahon CM, Pietras EM, Pollyea DA, Alper S. Myelodysplastic neoplasm-associated U2AF1 mutations induce host defense defects by compromising neutrophil chemotaxis. Leukemia. 2023 Oct;37(10):2115-2124. PubMed PMID: 37591942
  • Chavez JS, Rabe JL, Niño KE, Wells HH, Gessner RL, Mills TS, Hernandez G, Pietras EM. PU.1 is required to restrain myelopoiesis during chronic inflammatory stress. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2023;11:1204160. PubMed PMID: 37497478
  • Nash MJ, Dobrinskikh E, Soderborg TK, Janssen RC, Takahashi DL, Dean TA, Varlamov O, Hennebold JD, Gannon M, Aagaard KM, McCurdy CE, Kievit P, Bergman BC, Jones KL, Pietras EM, Wesolowski SR, Friedman JE. Maternal diet alters long-term innate immune cell memory in fetal and juvenile hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells in nonhuman primate offspring. Cell Rep. 2023 Apr 25;42(4):112393. PubMed PMID: 37058409
  • Pietras EM. Young bugs rejuvenate old blood. Blood. 2023 Apr 6;141(14):1650-1652. PubMed PMID: 37022735
  • Mitchell CA, Verovskaya EV, Calero-Nieto FJ, Olson OC, Swann JW, Wang X, Hérault A, Dellorusso PV, Zhang SY, Svendsen AF, Pietras EM, Bakker ST, Ho TT, Göttgens B, Passegué E. Stromal niche inflammation mediated by IL-1 signalling is a targetable driver of haematopoietic ageing. Nat Cell Biol. 2023 Jan;25(1):30-41. PubMed PMID: 36650381
  • Alkhani A, Korsholm C, Levy CS, Mohamedaly S, Duwaerts CC, Pietras EM, Nijagal A. Neonatal Hepatic Myeloid Progenitors Expand and Propagate Liver Injury in Mice. J Clin Med. 2023 Jan 1;12(1). PubMed PMID: 36615137
  • Ahmed N, Etzrodt M, Dettinger P, Kull T, Loeffler D, Hoppe PS, Chavez JS, Zhang Y, Camargo Ortega G, Hilsenbeck O, Nakajima H, Pietras EM, Schroeder T. Blood stem cell PU.1 upregulation is a consequence of differentiation without fast autoregulation. J Exp Med. 2022 Jan 3;219(1). PubMed PMID: 34817548
  • Niño KE, Pietras EM. TNF Receptors Choose HSC Fate in Supporting Dnmt3a-Mutant Clonal Hematopoiesis. Cancer Discov. 2022 Dec 2;12(12):2724-2726. PubMed PMID: 36458433
  • Sureshchandra S, Chan CN, Robino JJ, Parmelee LK, Nash MJ, Wesolowski SR, Pietras EM, Friedman JE, Takahashi D, Shen W, Jiang X, Hennebold JD, Goldman D, Packwood W, Lindner JR, Roberts CT Jr, Burwitz BJ, Messaoudi I, Varlamov O. Maternal Western-style diet remodels the transcriptional landscape of fetal hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells in rhesus macaques. Stem Cell Reports. 2022 Dec 13;17(12):2595-2609. PubMed PMID: 36332628
  • Pietras EM, DeGregori J. Dangerous Liaisons between Tet2 Mutation, Inflammatory Monocytes, and Leukemogenesis. Cancer Discov. 2022 Oct 5;12(10):2234-2236. PubMed PMID: 36196576
  • Schleicher WE, Pietras EM. Reduced PU.1 Expression Collaborates with Tet2 Loss to Trigger Myeloid Leukemogenesis. Blood Cancer Discov. 2022 Sep 6;3(5):378-381. PubMed PMID: 36065607
  • Zhou C, Uluisik R, Rowley JW, David C, Jones CL, Scharer CD, Noetzli L, Fisher MH, Kirkpatrick GD, Bark K, Boss JM, Henry CJ, Pietras EM, Di Paola J, Porter CC. Germline ETV6 mutation promotes inflammation and disrupts lymphoid development of early hematopoietic progenitors. Exp Hematol. 2022 Aug-Sep;112-113:24-34. PubMed PMID: 35803545
  • Florez MA, Tran BT, Wathan TK, DeGregori J, Pietras EM, King KY. Clonal hematopoiesis: Mutation-specific adaptation to environmental change. Cell Stem Cell. 2022 Jun 2;29(6):882-904. PubMed PMID: 35659875
  • Patel SB, Pietras EM. B cells regulate hematopoietic stem cells via cholinergic signaling. Nat Immunol. 2022 Apr;23(4):476-478. PubMed PMID: 35347284
  • Chavez JS, Rabe JL, Hernandez G, Mills TS, Niño KE, Davizon-Castillo P, Pietras EM. PU.1 Expression Defines Distinct Functional Activities in the Phenotypic HSC Compartment of a Murine Inflammatory Stress Model. Cells. 2022 Feb 15;11(4). PubMed PMID: 35203330
  • Ahmed N, Etzrodt M, Dettinger P, Kull T, Loeffler D, Hoppe PS, Chavez JS, Zhang Y, Camargo Ortega G, Hilsenbeck O, Nakajima H, Pietras EM, Schroeder T. Blood stem cell PU.1 upregulation is a consequence of differentiation without fast autoregulation. J Exp Med. 2022 Jan 3;219(1). PubMed PMID: 34817548
  • Challen GA, Pietras EM, Wallscheid NC, Signer RAJ. Simplified murine multipotent progenitor isolation scheme: Establishing a consensus approach for multipotent progenitor identification. Exp Hematol. 2021 Dec;104:55-63. PubMed PMID: 34648848
  • Majumdar D, Pietras EM, Pawar SA. Analysis of Radiation-Induced Changes in Cell Cycle and DNA Damage of Murine Hematopoietic Stem Cells by Multi-Color Flow Cytometry. Curr Protoc. 2021 Aug;1(8):e216. PubMed PMID: 34399037
  • Caiado F, Pietras EM, Manz MG. Inflammation as a regulator of hematopoietic stem cell function in disease, aging, and clonal selection. J Exp Med. 2021 Jul 5;218(7). PubMed PMID: 34129016
  • Higa KC, Goodspeed A, Chavez JS, De Dominici M, Danis E, Zaberezhnyy V, Rabe JL, Tenen DG, Pietras EM, DeGregori J. Chronic interleukin-1 exposure triggers selection for Cebpa-knockout multipotent hematopoietic progenitors. J Exp Med. 2021 Jun 7;218(6). PubMed PMID: 33914855
  • Chavez JS, Rabe JL, Loeffler D, Higa KC, Hernandez G, Mills TS, Ahmed N, Gessner RL, Ke Z, Idler BM, Niño KE, Kim H, Myers JR, Stevens BM, Davizon-Castillo P, Jordan CT, Nakajima H, Ashton J, Welner RS, Schroeder T, DeGregori J, Pietras EM. PU.1 enforces quiescence and limits hematopoietic stem cell expansion during inflammatory stress. J Exp Med. 2021 Jun 7;218(6). PubMed PMID: 33857288
  • Cavalli G, Tengesdal IW, Gresnigt M, Nemkov T, Arts RJW, Domínguez-Andrés J, Molteni R, Stefanoni D, Cantoni E, Cassina L, Giugliano S, Schraa K, Mills TS, Pietras EM, Eisenmensser EZ, Dagna L, Boletta A, D'Alessandro A, Joosten LAB, Netea MG, Dinarello CA. The anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-37 is an inhibitor of trained immunity. Cell Rep. 2021 Apr 6;35(1):108955. PubMed PMID: 33826894
  • Tengesdal IW, Menon DR, Osborne DG, Neff CP, Powers NE, Gamboni F, Mauro AG, D'Alessandro A, Stefanoni D, Henen MA, Mills TS, De Graaf DM, Azam T, Vogeli B, Palmer BE, Pietras EM, DeGregori J, Tan AC, Joosten LAB, Fujita M, Dinarello CA, Marchetti C. Targeting tumor-derived NLRP3 reduces melanoma progression by limiting MDSCs expansion. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Mar 9;118(10). PubMed PMID: 33649199
  • Pollyea DA, Kim HM, Stevens BM, Lee FF, Harris C, Hedin BR, Knapp JR, O'Connor BP, Jordan CT, Pietras EM, Tan AC, Alper S. MDS-associated SF3B1 mutations enhance proinflammatory gene expression in patient blast cells. J Leukoc Biol. 2021 Jul;110(1):197-205. PubMed PMID: 33155727
  • Culp-Hill R, D'Alessandro A, Pietras EM. Extinguishing the Embers: Targeting AML Metabolism. Trends Mol Med. 2021 Apr;27(4):332-344. PubMed PMID: 33121874
  • Kang YA, Pietras EM, Passegué E. Deregulated Notch and Wnt signaling activates early-stage myeloid regeneration pathways in leukemia. J Exp Med. 2020 Mar 2;217(3). PubMed PMID: 31886826
  • Pollyea DA, Kim HM, Stevens BM, Lee FF, Harris C, Hedin BR, Knapp JR, O'Connor BP, Jordan CT, Pietras EM, Tan AC, Alper S. MDS-associated SF3B1 mutations enhance proinflammatory gene expression in patient blast cells. J Leukoc Biol. 2020 Nov 6. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 33155727
  • Culp-Hill R, D'Alessandro A, Pietras EM. Extinguishing the Embers: Targeting AML Metabolism. Trends Mol Med. 2020 Oct 26. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 33121874
  • Fisher MH, Kirkpatrick GD, Stevens B, Jones C, Callaghan M, Rajpurkar M, Fulbright J, Cooper MA, Rowley J, Porter CC, Gutierrez-Hartmann A, Jones K, Jordan C, Pietras EM, Di Paola J. ETV6 germline mutations cause HDAC3/NCOR2 mislocalization and upregulation of interferon response genes. JCI Insight. 2020 Sep 17;5(18). PubMed PMID: 32841218
  • Wang Y, Sano S, Yura Y, Ke Z, Sano M, Oshima K, Ogawa H, Horitani K, Min KD, Miura-Yura E, Kour A, Evans MA, Zuriaga MA, Hirschi KK, Fuster JJ, Pietras EM, Walsh K. Tet2-mediated clonal hematopoiesis in nonconditioned mice accelerates age-associated cardiac dysfunction. JCI Insight. 2020 Mar 26;5(6). PubMed PMID: 32154790
  • Kang YA, Pietras EM, Passegué E. Deregulated Notch and Wnt signaling activates early-stage myeloid regeneration pathways in leukemia. J Exp Med. 2020 Mar 2;217(3). PubMed PMID: 31886826
  • Rabe JL, Hernandez G, Chavez JS, Mills TS, Nerlov C, Pietras EM. CD34 and EPCR coordinately enrich functional murine hematopoietic stem cells under normal and inflammatory conditions. Exp Hematol. 2020 Jan;81:1-15.e6. PubMed PMID: 31863798
  • Rabe JL, Hernandez G, Chavez JS, Mills TS, Nerlov C, Pietras EM. CD34 and EPCR coordinately enrich functional murine hematopoietic stem cells under normal and inflammatory conditions. Exp Hematol. 2019 Dec 18. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 31863798
  • Davizon-Castillo P, McMahon B, Aguila S, Bark D, Ashworth K, Allawzi A, Campbell RA, Montenont E, Nemkov T, D'Alessandro A, Clendenen N, Shih L, Sanders NA, Higa K, Cox A, Padilla-Romo Z, Hernandez G, Wartchow E, Trahan GD, Nozik-Grayck E, Jones K, Pietras EM, DeGregori J, Rondina MT, Di Paola J. TNF-a-driven inflammation and mitochondrial dysfunction define the platelet hyperreactivity of aging. Blood. 2019 Aug 29;134(9):727-740. PubMed PMID: 31311815
  • Hemmati S, Sinclair T, Tong M, Bartholdy B, Okabe RO, Ames K, Ostrodka L, Haque T, Kaur I, Mills TS, Agarwal A, Pietras EM, Zhao JJ, Roberts TM, Gritsman K. PI3 kinase alpha and delta promote hematopoietic stem cell activation. JCI Insight. 2019 May 23;5. PubMed PMID: 31120863
  • Hernandez G, Mills TS, Rabe JL, Chavez JS, Kuldanek S, Kirkpatrick G, Noetzli L, Jubair WK, Zanche M, Meyers JR, Stevens BM, Fleenor CJ, Adane B, Dinarello CA, Ashton J, Jordan CT, Di Paola J, Hagman JR, Holers VM, Kuhn KA, Pietras EM. Pro-inflammatory cytokine blockade attenuates myeloid expansion in a murine model of rheumatoid arthritis. Haematologica. 2019 May 17. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 31101752
  • Pollyea DA, Harris C, Rabe JL, Hedin BR, De Arras L, Katz S, Wheeler E, Bejar R, Walter MJ, Jordan CT, Pietras EM, Alper S. Myelodysplastic syndrome-associated spliceosome gene mutations enhance innate immune signaling. Haematologica. 2019 Sep;104(9):e388-e392. PubMed PMID: 30846499
  • Jalbert E, Pietras EM. Analysis of Murine Hematopoietic Stem Cell Proliferation During Inflammation. Methods Mol Biol. 2018;1686:183-200. PubMed PMID: 29030822
  • Chavez JS, Pietras EM. Hematopoietic Stem Cells Rock Around The Clock: Circadian Fate Control via TNF/ROS Signals. Cell Stem Cell. 2018 Oct 4;23(4):459-460. PubMed PMID: 30290172
  • Fleenor CJ, Arends T, Lei H, Åhsberg J, Okuyama K, Kuruvilla J, Cristobal S, Rabe JL, Pandey A, Danhorn T, Straign D, Espinosa JM, Warming S, Pietras EM, Sigvardsson M, Hagman JR. Zinc Finger Protein 521 Regulates Early Hematopoiesis through Cell-Extrinsic Mechanisms in the Bone Marrow Microenvironment. Mol Cell Biol. 2018 Sep 1;38(17). PubMed PMID: 29915154
  • Pietras EM. Ezh2 spares KitL from the cutter. Blood. 2018 May 17;131(20):2180-2181. PubMed PMID: 29773542
  • Jalbert E, Pietras EM. Analysis of Murine Hematopoietic Stem Cell Proliferation During Inflammation. Methods Mol Biol. 2018;1686:183-200. PubMed PMID: 29030822
  • Pietras EM. Inflammation: a key regulator of hematopoietic stem cell fate in health and disease. Blood. 2017 Oct 12;130(15):1693-1698. PubMed PMID: 28874349
  • Pietras EM. The importance of tying up loose (DNA) ends. Blood. 2017 May 4;129(18):2457-2458. PubMed PMID: 28473409
  • Dudli S, Sing DC, Hu SS, Berven SH, Burch S, Deviren V, Cheng I, Tay BKB, Alamin TF, Ith MAM, Pietras EM, Lotz JC. ISSLS PRIZE IN BASIC SCIENCE 2017: Intervertebral disc/bone marrow cross-talk with Modic changes. Eur Spine J. 2017 May;26(5):1362-1373. PubMed PMID: 28138783
  • Hérault A, Binnewies M, Leong S, Calero-Nieto FJ, Zhang SY, Kang YA, Wang X, Pietras EM, Chu SH, Barry-Holson K, Armstrong S, Göttgens B, Passegué E. Myeloid progenitor cluster formation drives emergency and leukaemic myelopoiesis. Nature. 2017 Apr 6;544(7648):53-58. PubMed PMID: 28355185
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Practice Locations

UCHealth Hematology Clinic - Anschutz Medical Campus
1665 Aurora Ct
2nd Floor, Anschutz Cancer Pavilion
Aurora, CO 80045
720-848-0300

Specialty Information

Specialties
  • Hematology
Personal Interests
Eric Pietras, PhD, earned his BA in Biochemistry (magna cum laude with honors) from Knox College in 2001. He subsequently trained for 2 years as a research technician at the University of Chicago, under the mentorship of Dr. Marcus Peter. Eric pursued his PhD at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in the laboratory of Dr. Genhong Cheng, where he identified molecular and systemic pathways that activate immune responses to viral and bacterial pathogens. Following graduation in 2008, Eric started postdoctoral training at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) under the mentorship of Dr. Emmanuelle Passegué, focusing on identifying the role of pro-inflammatory cytokines in regulating hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) function. After completing his postdoctoral work, Eric was recruited to his current faculty position in the Division of Hematology at the University of Colorado. He is a member of the University of Colorado Cancer Center (UCCC) and holds a secondary faculty appointment in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology. Eric is also affiliated with the Charles C. Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine, the Crnic Institute and the CU RNA Biosciences Initiative. Eric is a member of the Microbiology/Immunology, Cancer Biology, Molecular Biology and Biological Sciences graduate programs. During his training, Eric was the recipient of several intramural and extramural awards, including an NIH K01 Career Development Award funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) in 2014. After joining the University of Colorado, Eric was a recipient of the 5-year Sandra Saffer Research Chair at the University of Colorado, and in 2017 was a recipient of the prestigious Boettcher Foundation Webb-Waring Early Career Investigator award, holding the title of Boettcher Investigator. In 2019, Eric was the recipient of the Cleo Meador and George Ryland Scott Endowed Chair of Medicine in Hematology, and was named an Outstanding Early Career Scholar by the CU Department of Medicine. In his spare time Eric is an avid photographer and musician. He has a number of albums to his name as a solo artist or contributor, and since 2014 has hosted a weekly Internet radio show where he presents ambient and experimental music. He also enjoys cycling, hiking and snowshoeing in the mountains.

General Information

Graduate Schools:
  • PhD, University of California, Los Angeles (2008)
Undergraduate Schools:
  • BA, Knox College (IL) (2001)
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Languages: English
Department: Medicine-Hematology
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