Epigenetic and Transcriptional Functions of Nuclear Receptors and Chromatin Remodeling Proteins in Stem and Cancer Cells

The research investigates the elegant organization of nucleic acids into chromatin and the interplay between genome accessibility, chromatin posttranslational modifications, and transcriptional activity. A major focus is understanding how epigenetic enzymes, including chromatin remodeling proteins such as the SWI/SNF complex, work with transcription factors like the glucocorticoid receptor to respond to environmental cues. Studies utilize embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotency stem cells (iPSCs) to understand normal and disease states, including generating and comparing transcriptomic data from dermal fibroblast-iPSC pairs to identify ancestry-dependent and independent transcripts associated with reprogramming efficiency. Recent work includes investigating the effect of transcription inhibition on histone modifications and the role of linker histone H1.4 in regulating transcriptional response patterns.