Professor
Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
Cell growth, differentiation and development; Developmental Biology; Epigenetics; Gene Expression; Genomics and proteomics; Models - cell and animal; Molecular and Cellular Biology; Transcription Factors; Transcriptomics; Vision science
I am interested in the fundamental mechanisms regulating the shift of cellular states in neural differentiation from progenitor cells during embryonic development. We use the neural retina as our model system to address this question. Our efforts are on identifying key regulators and uncovering their roles in individual cell lineages. Our current focus is on how transcription factors influence the epigenetic landscape to promote the formation of retinal ganglion cells. We are also investigating how posttranscriptional control of gene expression affects retinal cell differentiation. We conduct our research using a combined approach of genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, histology, transcriptomics, epigenomics, single-cell technologies, and bioinformatics.