The van Opijnen Lab works at the intersection of microbial systems biology, functional genomics, and computational modeling. Our central focus is understanding how bacterial pathogens survive the combined assault of host immunity and antibiotic treatment...
The Horlbeck lab studies Chromatinopathies, a large class of genetic disorders in which disruption of chromatin modifying machinery leads to developmental delay and intellectual disability. The lab seeks to understand how chromatin regulation shapes cell...
Gene expression control is fundamental to all biological systems and is primarily mediated by transcription factors (TFs) that bind specific DNA sequences. This control is quantitative—approximately 50% reductions in TF levels cause rare disorders, while...
The Wu laboratory of structural immunology focuses on elucidating the molecular mechanism of signal transduction by immune receptors, especially innate immune receptors. The lab began its studies on the signaling of a classical cytokine produced by the...
Our laboratory pursues both basic and translational studies to understand and treat infections caused by intestinal bacteria. Areas of interest described below include the impact of intestinal pathogens on host metabolism and nutrition, development of...
Molecule analysis of blood cell development has served as an important paradigm for stem cell biology. We have obtained a solid foundation in understanding how commitment to specific lineages is programmed and cell-specific patterns of gene expression are...
Our current research includes three themes. First, we are studying the role of non-canonical nucleic acid structures, G-quadruplex (G4) and R-loop in gene expression, both at the level of transcription and translation in e.coli and mammalian cells. G4 is...
How nutrient uptake and utilization is altered in cancer, how the host systemic metabolic state can influence these alterations and in turn, get affected by tumor growth and metabolism, are major focus areas in our lab.
Altered metabolism is a hallmark of...
Our laboratory studies how blood platelets, which function as the bandaids of the bloodstream, are produced from megakaryocyte precursor cells. Megakaryocytes are terminally differentiated cells that in their final hours convert into long, branched...
Cell architecture in C. elegans
The question I am interested in is, "How do cells get the right shapes and make the right attachments to build organs?" Single cells have amazing morphologies that determine their function -- nowhere more so than in the...
