Graduate Programs in the Life Sciences

Research Focus

• Understanding how cell signaling interactions and their accompanying genomic regulatory networks coordinate development
• Combine mouse genetics with genomic and computational studies to define and experimentally test regulatory network structure and dynamics
• Specific components of evolutionarily conserved signaling pathways
• Generated a collection of Spry2 mutant mice that constitute an allelic series ranging from reduced expression to complete loss of Spry2 function
• Using these mice to examine how cross-talk between conserved pathways, such as FGF, BMP and SHH, guides dosage sensitive cellular interactions that shape developing structures
• Head and face, the branched architecture of the respiratory tree and the collecting ducts of the kidney
• Constructed a computational pipeline to search for patterns based on positional relationships between genes and putative regulatory modules
• Studying how the genome is organized to coordinate gene expression during development
• Evolve the structure of genomic regulatory networks that guide morphogenesis
• Use genetic screens to identify genes that are essential for mouse development
• Classic genetic resource in the mouse, the piebald deletion complex
• Perform genetic screens focusing on specific chromosomal regions