Vo Lab

We start life with a single genome that encodes for all the ways in which we will develop, adapt, or become diseased over our lifetimes. How do genomes react when confronted with unpredictable challenges? How do they remember these challenges and relay to the next generation? The answer can be found in the area of epigenetics - the study of how phenotypes arise from gene expression changes instead of permanent genetic alterations. These changes can be temporary or can persist from one generation to the next. What we do not know is how these "decisions" are made. Our lab is currently using the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe as a eukaryotic model to understand how natural genomes evoke epigenetic responses during stress response and development, and to engineer new epigenetic circuits that might one day be used in people for therapeutic purposes. 

Our specific research goals: Biochemically, epigenetic responses are majorly influenced by chemical modifications of our genomes, called "post-translational modifications (PTMs)". We want to explore: How PTMs "choose" their chromatin targets? How do cells balance their PTMs at different regions of the genome? What happens to cells when "wrong choices" are made? These are all very fundamental questions in the broader area of eukaryotic gene regulation that our team seeks to understand. Please see Research for more info on on-going projects in the lab!