SAN DIEGO--Since thrombopoie-tin (TPO), the ligand for the Mpl receptor, was cloned by four separate laboratories in 1994, researchers have been exploring, with animal models and in clinical settings, how it can be used to benefit patients. Kenneth Kaushansky, MD, a prominent researcher in the field, summarized some of the results of the studies to date, at the Sixth International Symposium on Recent Advances in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation, sponsored by the University of California, San Diego.