DF/HCC Program Affiliation

Cancer Cell Biology

Research Abstract

We are using the nematode C. elegans to study developmental gene regulation. We study specialized gene regulatory mechanisms that are important in the developing germ line and during oogenesis, as a model for stem cell function. We also study transcriptional control during the earliest embryonic stages. Another major interest of our lab is determining how a conserved transcriptional response to oxidative stress is regulated within the digestive system by redox, stress, and metabolic signals.

Publications

• Walker AK, Shi Y, Blackwell TK.An extensive requirement for transcription factor IID-specific TAF-1 in Caenorhabditis elegans embryonic transcription.J Biol Chem 2004 Apr 9;279(15):15339-47.
  14726532
• An JH, Blackwell TK.SKN-1 links C. elegans mesendodermal specification to a conserved oxidative stress response.Genes Dev 2003 Aug 1;17(15):1882-93.
  12869585
• Shim EY, Walker AK, Shi Y, Blackwell TK.CDK-9/cyclin T (P-TEFb) is required in two postinitiation pathways for transcription in the C. elegans embryo.Genes Dev 2002 Aug 15;16(16):2135-46.
  12183367
• Navarro RE, Shim EY, Kohara Y, Singson A, Blackwell TK.cgh-1, a conserved predicted RNA helicase required for gametogenesis and protection from physiological germline apoptosis in C. elegans.Development 2001 Sep;128(17):3221-32.
  11546739
• Batchelder C, Dunn MA, Choy B, Suh Y, Cassie C, Shim EY, Shin TH, Mello C, Seydoux G, Blackwell TK.Transcriptional repression by the Caenorhabditis elegans germ-line protein PIE-1.Genes Dev 1999 Jan 15;13(2):202-12.
  9925644