Projects in my lab encompass different areas of genetics, developmental biology and physiology of Reproduction. One common thread in most of the research that I do is that the research revolves around the function of nuclear receptors. Nuclear receptor are transcription factors that have differentiatially conserved ligand binding domains and DNA binding domains. They function by binding response element on DNA and through activation function domains and recruitment of co-activators cause transcrition to occur. Examples of nuclear receptors are the steroid receptors. Some nuclear receptors have no known ligand and are functionally constitutive in nature. These nuclear receptors are called orphan nuclear receptors. An example of this is steroidogenic factor 1 (SF-1, NR5A1, AD4BP). Many of the steroid nuclear receptors are now known to display non-genomic functions besides their genomic functions. The androgen receptor for instance has a SRC kinase interaction domain and through ERK1/2 phosphorylation creates a kinase cascade that ultimately results in transcription.
