Inside every human cell, six feet of DNA and thousands of RNAs and proteins are packed into a tiny nucleus. This raises the question: How is the cell able to execute various complex reactions like gene regulation, RNA splicing,...
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The formation of precise neural connections during development is critical for proper brain function We use a combination of single-cell transcriptomic analysis, animal models, virus-mediated axon tracing and in vivo electrophysiology to identify the molecules and mechanisms mediating correct neural circuit...
We study how cells build the human body. We use human pluripotent stem cells to build organoids that recapitulate essential features of developmental processes. With these simplified in vitro models, we dive deep into mechanisms that integrate gene regulation,...
My lab focuses on understanding and exploiting the complex signaling properties of human membrane proteins with a particular focus on G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). GPCRs adopt a very broad set of distinct conformations, the populations and dynamics of which...
Disrupted social behavior is a core feature of compromised mental health, including anxiety and depression, and is a long-standing early diagnostic marker of disorders that emerge in later-life. Yet, we have little understanding of the ontogeny of social behavior...
The Egeblad lab studies the contributions of the tumor microenvironment – in which cancer cells arise and live – to therapy responses and metastasis. Solid tumors are abnormally organized tissues that contain not only cancer cells, but also various...
The Cai lab focuses on understanding how the transcription process is regulated in normal and cancer cells. We are intrigued by the discoveries in our lab that many transcription factors involved in cancers can form small, liquid-like condensates in...
RNA is typically understood as an intermediary molecule between DNA and protein. But, many noncoding RNAs, as well as the noncoding regions of messenger RNA, are increasingly appreciated as important regulators of gene expression and cellular functions. The forefront...