Patent ID: 8795650

Claim:
A method of differentiating and immortalizing progenitor cells comprising: a) contacting isolated progenitor cells with a fusion protein comprising a HOX oncoprotein and an estrogen receptor binding domain (ERBD), wherein the ERBD consists of the sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO: 10, wherein said isolated progenitor cells are progenitor cells that give rise to subsets of mature blood cells and wherein the contacting comprises infecting the progenitor cells with a vector comprising a nucleic acid sequence which encodes the fusion protein, and wherein the ERBD is fused to the N-terminus of the HOX oncoprotein; and b) culturing the progenitor cells of step a) with a combination of one or more multilineage cytokines, a myeloid-specific cytokine, and an estrogen agonist, whereupon culturing, the progenitor cells become immortalized and exhibit commitment to neutrophil, macrophage, and/or dendritic lineage or exhibit multi-lineage blood cell differentiation potential.