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]

Dr. Haussler's research lies at the interface of mathematics, computer science, and molecular biology. He has focused on computational analysis and classification of DNA, RNA, and protein sequences. As a collaborator on the public Human Genome Project, his team posted the first publicly available computational assembly of the human genome sequence on the Internet, and it now maintains UCSC's Genome Browser, which is used extensively in biomedical research. [More]

Josh Stuart's research group develops computational approaches for predicting gene function and discovering how gene activity is regulated and modulated in response to cellular events and processes. Their methods combine genome-wide functional data across multiple organisms to identify conserved genetic mechanisms. The group has three broad aims: 1) to develop computational models to predict gene function, 2) to integrate datasets across multiple organisms to identify core molecular pathways, and 3) to develop algorithms and resources for biological discovery. Stuart also collaborates with numerous colleagues at UCSC and elsewhere to predict molecular targets of drugs, causal networks in disease, and pathways involved in stem cell differentiation. [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 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]