The laboratory studies muscle stem cells in human and mouse tissues, with the goal of developing strategies that will slow the progression of and improve muscle function for muscular dystrophy. Skeletal muscle contains progenitors that express BMPR1a and are able to adopt a myogenic or adipogenic fate. A crucial question is to understand the downstream molecular mechanisms that regulate the fate determination of these progenitors towards muscle or fat lineages. Further, we plan generate a mouse model to study the developmental origin of these cells and their contribution to developing and adult skeletal muscle in both normal and diseased conditions.Another laboratory focus is to identify proteins that mediate fusion of myoblasts into myofibers. We have identified several candidate genes that significantly change in expression during muscle cell differentiation and fusion. This project studies the function of candidate genes in muscle cells and in regenerating muscle. Additionally, the candidate genes are tested for presence of mutations in patients with uncharacterized muscle disorders.