Current Projects: 

Identification of additional binding partners of PW1 in muscle cells

A Yeast Two-Hybrid screen was previously performed in the lab to identify PW1 interacting proteins. Siah1, Siah2 and TRAF2 proteins were identified as high affinity binding proteins in this context. Their interaction with PW1 was confirmed by co-expressing epitope-tagged cDNAs in mammalian cells followed by immunoprecipitation and Western blotting. These studies provided an important clue as to the role of PW1 in TNF-alpha signaling, where PW1 is centrally positioned in cellular pathways leading to both death and survival.

However, parallel studies suggested that PW1 likely has additional binding partners and plays a far broader role outside of the signaling pathways governed by Siah and TRAF proteins. Therefore, we plan to identify additional binding partners of PW1 using co-immunoprecipitation and 2-diminesional gel analysis.

PW1 transgenic reporter mice and expression of PW1 in other stem cell populations

Study of the modification of the muscle stem cell compartment in various mutants--are PW1 interstitial cells capable of contributing to muscle regeneration?

Role of Wnt signaling in the development of the female reproductive tract. Ultimately an understanding of the basic science underlying normal reproductive tract development is requisite for the diagnosis of disease, explanation of infertility, and for treatment and prognosis of reproductive cancers in women, and our studies in mice provide a link into gaining that insight.