The focus of my research program is to unravel the molecular mechanisms underlying how nuclear architecture at the nuclear envelope regulates many fundamental cellular processes, including genomic architecture, RNA transcription and cell signaling. The field lacks a fundamental understanding of the mechanisms underlying how proteins at the nuclear envelope regulate transcription factor activity and genomic organization. Further, our understanding for how genomic organization at the nuclear periphery is initiated and maintained to establish repressed domains at the nuclear lamina and active domains at nuclear pore complexes is particularly lacking. My lab studies an inner nuclear envelope protein named emerin to elucidate these mechanisms. Mutations in emerin cause Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy (EDMD), a disorder characterized by skeletal muscle wasting and irregular heart rhythms. Recent evidence suggests impaired skeletal muscle stem cell differentiation during healing contributes to the skeletal muscle phenotype of EDMD. Thus understanding emerin function in nuclear architecture, gene expression and cell signaling during skeletal muscle stem cell differentiation will not only answer fundamental questions regarding how the nuclear envelope regulates genomic architecture and gene expression, but it was also contribute significantly to elucidating the EDMD mechanism.

My research program consists of three major areas of research designed to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the role of the nuclear envelope in genomic architecture, gene expression and cell signaling in normal cells and in skeletal muscle disease. These areas of research are: 1) Emerin regulation of transcription factor activity, 2) Emerin regulation of genomic and chromatin architecture, 3) Identification and characterization of signaling and transcriptional pathways disrupted in EDMD. Through the research in these areas, my research program has contributed significantly to our understanding of emerin function in gene expression and genomic architecture in normal cells and in muscle disease.