Research
The department currently has 15 faculty members with expertise in the following areas:
- Mechanisms of self-renewal and pluripotency in embryonic stem cells
- Mechanisms that control cell fate, embryogenesis and evolution
- Neural stem cell self-renewal and differentiation
- Telomere maintenance in cancer and aging
- RNA processing and diseases
- Cell division and cell cycle checkpoints
- Mechanisms of DNA repair
- Cancer susceptibility genes and modifiers
- Functional characterization of novel tumor suppressor genes
- Genomics
The faculty is funded through several mechanisms including a large number of R01s, a U01 and grants from the Department of Defense and other agencies. Two members of the faculty serve as leaders of program projects. Grants to the department total approximately eight million dollars annually in direct costs.