Helen M. Blau, Ph.D. is the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation Professor and Director of the Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology at Stanford University. Blau is world-renowned for her work on nuclear reprogramming and demonstration of the plasticity of cell fate using cell fusion. Her lab pioneered the design of biomaterials to mimic the in vivo muscle stem cell niche, a paradigm for maintaining the stem cell state in vitro. She is widely recognized for the identification of regulators that enhance muscle stem cell function in muscle wasting disorders and aging, including her groundbreaking discovery of the prostaglandin degrading enzyme, 15-PGDH, as a master regulator of aging. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and National Academy of Sciences.

She is invited by Pascal Maire.