Research

Recent advances in DNA sequencing technologies have yielded a flood of new information about the genetic basis of differences in disease predisposition as well as new genes that contribute to the developmental and physiological abnormalities underlying human pathologies. Although exciting, these dramatic advances have posed a new and fundamentally important set of challenges for biomedical science.

While some novel disease genes affect well-known proteins in new ways, many encode proteins or RNAs about which little is known. One key challenge will be to determine the biochemical, cellular and organismal functions of these proteins and RNAs in order to give us the insights needed to understand their role in disease. Another challenge will be integrating the large amount of information that comes from genomic, biochemical, and imaging data in order to understand the complexity of biological systems during development, and the changes that lead to dysfunction of these systems during disease.

IBGS helps assemble the interdisciplinary research teams that will be necessary to address these central new challenges.

Areas of Research

  • Vicki Bautch: Vascular Development and Endothelial Cell Biology
  • Liz Brunk: Functional Systems Genomics
  • Frank ConlonVertebrate Heart Development
  • Greg Copenhaver: Genetics of meiosis in plants
  • Steve CrewsNervous System Development and Gene Regulation
  • Jill Dowen: Gene Regulation and Chromosome Structure During Development and Disease
  • Rob Dowen: Regulation of fat metabolism during development, aging, and disease
  • Bob DuronioRegulation of Cell Proliferation During Development
  • Toshi Hige: Neurophysiology and Behavior in Drosophila
  • Parul Johri: Population Genetics, Statistical Inference, Evolutionary Genomics
  • Corbin Jones: Evolutionary Genetics and Genomics
  • Tal Kafri: Development of Lentivirus Vectors for Gene Therapy
  • Wonho Kim: Chromatin folding, Cohesin, Enhancer-Promoter interaction, Gene transcription
  • Amy Maddox: Cytoskeletal Dynamics and Cell Division
  • Nobuyo Maeda: Pathology of Atherosclerosis and Molecular Evolution
  • Bill Marzluff: Regulation of RNA Metabolism in Animal Cells
  • Greg MateraBiogenesis of Ribonucleoproteins in Health and Disease
  • Glenn MatsushimaInflammation and Neuroimmunology
  • Dan McKay: Genomics of Gene Regulation in Drosophila Development
  • Gary Pielak: Protein Biophysics in Living Cells
  • Matt Redinbo: Structural Studies of Dynamic Cellular Processes
  • Steve Rogers: Cell Biology of the Cytoskeleton, Cell Migration, and Morphogenesis
  • Jeff Sekelsky: DNA Repair and Recombination
  • Kevin Weeks: Structural and Chemical Biology of the Transcriptome