The mammalian brain contains billions of neurons that make even more billions of synaptic connections. These connections allow us to perceive the outside world, and are the framework for higher cognitive functions, such as learning, memory, thought and emotion. In addition, perturbations in patterns of synaptic connections underlie psychiatric, neurological and developmental disorders in humans. The Feldheim lab is interested in understanding how neural connections are generated during development. They find that both genes (nature) and neural activity (nurture) are used to form these connections during development. [More]

Camila Forsberg's research group focuses on stem cell fate decisions that give rise to variant blood cell types. Are such decisions made by the stem cell itself, by its descendant multipotent progenitors, or both? To answer such questions, Forsberg's group conducts molecular lineage tracing of HSC differentiation in vivo. In order to elucidate the mechanisms of fate decisions, they employ global analyses, such as genome-wide gene expression analysis and chromatin remodeling assays. The ultimate goal of this research is to facilitate our ability to direct specific fates and improve clinical applications of hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic stem cell therapy. [More]

Grant Hartzog's laboratory investigates the roles of proteins that regulate the rate of transcription elongation - i.e. how quickly RNA polymerases travel along and transcribe genes into RNA. Many normal cellular genes are known to be regulated at the level of elongation, and the HIV virus specifically co-opts normal transcription elongation factors to regulate its own replication. Thus, understanding how transcription elongation is controlled is important for an understanding of both normal and abnormal gene expression. [More]

Understanding the origins of stem cells in the embryo is essential for understanding how to guide formation of stem cell-derived tissues. Several stem cell-producing tissues exist in the early mouse embryo, which provides an ideal system for exploring mechanisms that guide stem cell development. In addition, stem cells can be artificially created by genetic reprogramming mature cells. We are interested in understanding how natural and reprogrammed stem cells compare. We use a variety of techniques, including mouse transgenics, bioinformatics, molecular biology, and confocal microscopy to examine the establishment and use of stem cells during normal development. From these studies, we hope to understand the molecular basis of cell fate and plasticity, as they relate to normal development and regenerative medicine. [More]

Germ cells (the cells that give rise to eggs and sperm) have special properties.  Their immortality allows them to be perpetuated from generation to generation, and their totipotency allows them to generate all of the diverse cell types of the body in each generation.  The Strome lab investigates the molecular mechanisms used by germ cells to establish and maintain their identity, immortality, and totipotency.  They study germ cells in the model organism C. elegans using a wide variety of approaches, including forward genetics, RNAi, imaging, molecular biology, biochemistry, and whole genome microarray-based technologies.  Their current focus areas are control of gene expression in germ cells by regulation of chromatin, and control of RNA metabolism by germline-specific cytoplasmic "P granules". [More]

The Sullivan lab uses the Drosophila embryo as a model system to investigate the mechanisms that drive furrow invagination during cytokinesis. Through a combination of cellular and molecular genetic approaches, the Sullivan group has showed that furrow formation requires coordinated cell cycle regulated and endocytic-based vesicle recruitment. These studies have also identified a new role for cell cycle checkpoints in coordinating the nuclear cycle with cytokinesis. More recently, the lab has applied these approaches toward understanding the mechanisms by which the widespread intracellular insect pathogen, Wolbachia, influences host nuclear and cytoplasmic cell cycles. [More]

The Tamkun lab investigates regulation of chromatin's high order structure and its role in gene expression. Composed of DNA and proteins, chromatin's ability to fold enables the eukaryotic genome to be packaged into an extremely small space inside the nucleus of the cell. Proper transcription and replication of the genome also depend upon precise regulation of these dynamic structures, with defects in these processes believed to underly many human diseases. [More]

Ex-vivo Survival Mechanisms used by Vibrio cholerae between Epidemics: Fitnat Yildiz's laboratory investigates signaling and regulatory networks of Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of the Asiatic cholera. She and her colleagues are particularly interested in those mechanisms that allow the pathogen to adapt to changes in its habitat. The bacteria's ability to survive in different growth modes in aquatic environments is closely linked to seasonal epidemics of cholera. Yildiz's laboratory is attempting to identify and characterize genes and processes associated with phase variations of the pathogen. Their results will be useful for prediction and control of epidemics of this devastating disease. [More]