2014 Research Highlights

Used gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) to examine the relative level of mutations in the FMRP-I gene set to better understand the role they may play in schizophrenia and autism.

Analyzed various microevolutionary changes to identify candidate virulence factors in clinical isolates of Candida albicans following murine host passage.

Used transcriptional profiling databases to find modes of action for small molecule IL-10 enhancers.

Investigated functional relationships between small-molecule compounds using a catalogue of gene-expression data known as the Connectivity Map.

Used exome sequencing to isolate potential substrates of UFL1, an E3 ligase implicated in schizophrenia.

Worked on understanding the substrate specificity of modifications on RNA by using data from a novel sequencing method that provides information about secondary structure on RNA.

Identified relationships between species diversity in pulmonary bacterial communities and the adaptive immune system.

Synthesized cyclic sulfamidate fragments from 1,2-amino alcohols in a pilot study building chiral fragment libraries.

Explored different fixation methods to halt transcription in macrophages infected with Candida albicans in order to facilitate the development of an imaging and RNA-seq analysis pipeline.

Studied SOX2 induced resistance to erlotinib in EGFR mutant adenocarcinoma cells.