Our area of study is within the fields of functional genomics, steroid hormones, and signal transduction and focuses on the relationship between steroid hormones and cell survival in the immune system and cancer. At the heart of our research is the basic question of how gene networks are coordinated in response to multiple types of signals from the environment and genetic programs. To address the complexity of this question requires the analysis of gene expression at the level of the whole genome. To gain an understanding of general principles in this basic question and how pathologic changes result in cancer, we developed a DNA microarray approach that allows the simultaneous measurement of the activity of tens of thousands of different genes in a single sample.

The goal of our research is to understand how steroid hormones regulate cell death and survival in normal and cancerous cells. In conducting this work, I have pursued a unique interdisciplinary approach to the study of the role of glucocorticoids in cell survival at the molecular level as well as in vivo. Employing the technologies of molecular biology, immunology and biochemistry I have studied steroid hormone receptor function in mammalian cell culture and mouse model systems. To further the research, I have developed new mouse models and microarray technology.