Professor of Biochemistry; Director of the Genetics, Genomics & Bioinformatics Graduate Program; Director, Western New York Stem Cell Culture and Analysis Center (WNYSTEM)
Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
Bioinformatics; Cell growth, differentiation and development; Gene Expression; Genomics and proteomics; Molecular and Cellular Biology; Molecular Basis of Disease; Molecular genetics; Neurobiology; Stem Cells; Transgenic organisms
My research goal is to gain a better understanding of how proteins that interact with DNA regulate RNA transcription, DNA replication and metazoan development. I mentor undergraduate and graduate students in my lab; we focus on the structure and function of the Nuclear Factor I (NFI) family of site-specific DNA binding proteins, and we are investigating their roles in development. Our work has been made possible by our development of loss-of-function mutations of the NFI genes in the mouse and C. elegans.
We are studying the role of the NFI genes in adult neural stem cell development. We've discovered recently that combined deletion of NFIA and NFIB prevents the normal self-renewal of neural stem cells and biases their differentiation into the neuronal lineage. We are addressing the molecular mechanisms behind these changes.