The Jiang lab studies fundamental mechanisms governing how diverse cell types are generated from naive progenitor cells and how cells of different types are put together to form appropriate body structures such as limbs during embryonic development. The lab also studies how damaged cells are replenished by stem cells during tissue repair and organ regeneration in adult life. We are particularly interested in understanding how cells communicate with one another to influence their growth and fate determination and how miscommunication among different cells leads to developmental abnormality and cancer progression.

My lab has a long-time interest in understanding the mechanisms of transcription and gene regulation in mammalian cells using initially cell-free systems reconstituted with purified gene-specific transcription factors, general cofactors, and components of the general transcription machinery to recapitulate transcriptional events in vitro.