[7] Blau is also known internationally for her work on adult stem cells and how they maintain, repair and rejuvenate tissues, in particular muscle.

It was featured as “Plasticity of the Differentiated State” on the cover of the Frontiers in Biology special issue of the journal Science in 1985.

In 2014 Blau’s lab provided early evidence that stem cell function declines during aging due to internal defects, in addition to external factors.

In 2017 Blau’s lab identified prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) as a critical component of the inflammatory response that orchestrates the natural muscle repair process.

Conversely, using a small molecule drug to reduce the activity of 15-PGDH in old mice markedly increases muscle mass, strength and endurance when running on a treadmill.

[13] These experiments showed that 15-PDGH is a pivotal molecular determinant of aging in muscle — a new class of molecule Blau termed a “gerozyme”.

[14] When skeletal muscles lose synapses, points of contact with the nerves, they atrophy and weaken, which compromises mobility and affects quality of life.

Denervation can be sudden due to a traumatic injury that compresses or severs the nerves or can occur progressively over time with disease or age.

[21][22]  Blau’s laboratory showed that inhibiting the gerozyme restores neuromuscular connections after either an acute or chronic loss of synapses due injury or aging.

[14] Further experiments showed that blocking the activity of the gerozyme has a synergistic beneficial effect on muscle: enhancing the number and function of cellular energy factories called mitochondria, remodeling the arrangement of protein filaments called myofibrils that make up muscle fibers, and repressing harmful aging-associated pathways.

Blau has served on many prominent scientific advisory boards and councils, including the Harvard Board of Overseers, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, NIH National Institute on Aging, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Society for Cell Biology, American Society for Gene Therapy, Ellison Medical Foundation, and the International Society for Stem Cell Research.

She has organized numerous national and international conferences and is an elected member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences that advises Pope Francis at the Vatican.