Gene Regulation and Signal Transduction

Associated Labs

DeLuca Lab 

Repression and activation of persisting HSV genomes: Herpes simplex virus can undergo either a productive infection, where all the viral genes are expressed culminating in the production of progeny virus and cell death, or it can enter a latent state, which is characterized by the relative lack of viral gene expression, genome persistence, and cell survival. Learn more>

Lee Lab

Our lab is studying the RNA-RNA based recruitment mechanism utilized in EBV in greater detail with the goal to extrapolate our findings to the host cell. Since viruses often adopt existing mechanisms from their hosts, our observation suggests that cellular ncRNAs might exist that use RNA-RNA interactions to guide transcription factors to their target sites. Learn more>

Sarkar Lab

Innate immunity of an organism is the inborn protection against invading pathogens. Because it is inborn, and entrusted with the protection of host from a vast array of previously unknown invaders, the innate immune system generates a generalized alert response upon pathogen detection. This alert is chemically mediated by a class of molecules called Cytokines. Learn more>

Schmidt Lab

My lab studies the Snf1 kinase of yeast. The mammalian homologue of Snf1 is the AMP-activated protein kinase, an important therapeutic target for type II diabetes. Biochemical and genetic experiments have shown that Snf1 kinase is regulated by phosphorylation of the conserved threonine residue in the kinase activation loop. Learn more>