The overall scientific goal of my lab is to understand how small RNAs and Transcription Factors work together in living cells. Our current research focus in on the analysis of over-represented microRNA-Transcription-Factor regulatory structures using Arabidopsis as a model organism. This work includes both computational and wet lab components to elucidate regulatory regions on a genome-wide scale. Both portions of the lab will address questions such as the following: Where are the transcription start sites of protein coding genes and noncoding RNAs? What are the functional cis-regulatory elements in their promoter regions? Can we learn to predict and understand these elements from data by using appropriate computational methods? Can we use these ideas to discover and reliably predict small genetic circuits that are functioning in an organism for a specific purpose (e.g. to generate a "pulse" of a gene as a developmental timing event, or to enforce a particular spatial pattern within a multicellular organism).
