UH Drug Discovery Institute

Research in our laboratory is focused towards understanding the molecular and signaling mechanisms that regulate skeletal muscle growth, atrophy, and regeneration in adults. We are also investigating molecular and signaling mechanisms which regulate self-renewal and differentiation of satellite cells in myogenic lineage. Moreover, we are studying the pathophysiological mechanisms in muscular dystrophy. Using animal models, we also study molecular mechanisms regulating skeletal muscle wasting during cancer cachexia. We use several cutting-edge biochemistry, molecular biology, and physiology techniques including tissue-specific transgenic and knockout mice, microarray, quantitative real-time PCR, RNA interference, viral vectors, primary mouse muscle cell cultures, flow cytometry, mass spectrometry, muscle contraction studies, and various immunohistochemical and morphometric methods in our ongoing research.