Our group is a multidisciplinary lab focused on developing integrated computational and experimental technologies that enable the systematic identification of regulatory mechanisms that drive cancer progression and metastasis. For cancer to spread, genes involved in the metastatic process must be altered. This dysregulation largely arises from modulations in the regulatory processes that govern gene expression dynamics. While post-transcriptional regulatory programs are responsible for the fate of RNA molecules in the cell, systematic studies of pathological aberrations in these pathways remain elusive.

Using computational, biochemical, and functional genomic tools, we aim to address the following biological problems: (1) What are the regulatory programs, both transcriptional and post-transcriptional, that govern aberrant RNA processing and expression in cancer cells? (2) What are the roles of higher-order inter-molecular interactions, including RNA-RNA, RNA-protein, and protein-protein interactions, in shaping the post-transcriptional regulatory networks? (3) What is the contribution of RNA structure to the definition of RNA-mediated interactions and their regulatory consequences? Finding solutions to these problems is a crucial step towards understanding how aberrant activity of post-transcriptional regulatory pathways help initiate and maintain the transformation process. Ultimately, we aim to target these pathological programs, in adjuvant or neoadjuvant settings, to inhibit the progression of metastatic tumors.