Grant: Project Grant

Cells are constantly responding to signals from their surrounding environment. These signals influence cellular behavior in many ways: they can promote or arrest growth and division, stimulate migration, alter electrical properties, or lead to programmed cell death. Cells respond to these signals by virtue of receptors on their surface, which, when engaged, trigger cascades of molecular events inside the cell; in disease these pathways are abnormally wired or abnormally active. In many cases these pathways culminate in changes in gene expression, but we still do not fully understand the molecular events that translate signals into effects on genes. In this project we will characterize a novel mechanism we have discovered for signal-dependent regulation of a protein called BRD4. BRD4 is a key regulator of gene expression and is abnormally active in a wide range of diseases including cancer and heart disease. By learning more about how BRD4 activity is turned on and off, we hope to uncover new therapeutic strategies for modulating BRD4 activity in disease states, as well as new clinical settings in which BRD4 inhibition may be beneficial.