Our research program aims to elucidate the basic principles that govern gene regulatory programs in normal and disease states. Specifically, we are exploring new mechanisms of transcriptional elongation control, factor-chromatin interaction, non-coding RNA functions, signaling regulation, viral latency, and cancer drivers, and discovering targets that can be chemically manipulated. To pursue these aims, we study cellular systems that are relevant for normal cell functioning and disease states, and we apply both computational and experimental approaches to gain mechanistic insights.
Our major milestones are:
- To define how HIV hijacks cellular resources to persist in the host cell
- To investigate how the HIV integration site in the host genome shapes the proviral fate
- To determine how regulation of transcriptional programs shapes cell fate
- To elucidate how transcriptional programs to malfunction in the context of cancer
- To identify novel targets that can be exploited therapeutically