Current Research and Scholarly Interests
Transcriptional control is a key step in the regulation of eukaryotic gene expression. Our lab focuses on understanding the molecular mechanism of transcription factors that govern the transformation of normal mammalian cells to a neoplastic state. We are especially interested in the biological roles of steroid hormone receptors and their co-regulators in development and oncogenesis. We use targeted conditional and inducible mouse models and other cellular and molecular approaches to uncover gene-expression and genomic and epigenetic alteration that occur during tumor development and progression and to functionally analyze the biological significance of these changes in oncogenic transformation. Our central goals are to identify the factors and signaling pathways that promote prostate cancer initiation and progression to castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) in tumor initiating cells in order to develop novel therapeutics to target these tumor cells.
