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 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 metabolism dysfunction and RNA-targeting therapy in neurodegeneration The nervous system has extremely complex RNA processing regulation. Dysfunction of RNA metabolism has emerged to play crucial roles in multiple neurological diseases. Mutations and pathologies of several RNA-binding proteins are...
Understanding how the information in the genome is utilized is one of the central questions in modern biology. It has become clear that a critical level of gene regulation occurs through the chemical modification of both the DNA itself...
Understanding the cell biology of genomes and how nuclear architecture controls gene expression is necessary to truly understand biological processes such as development and disease. Although sequencing of the genome and comparative genome analysis have yielded insights into the...
Our research seeks to map and engineer cell fate using synthetic biology and genomics approaches. To accomplish this objective, we develop: (A) molecular technologies that write cellular histories into their genomes, (B) sequencing strategies that read out written information...
