O'Brien, Timothy P.
Associate Professor of Genetic
research
research and scholarship focus
- Understanding how cell signaling interactions and their accompanying genomic regulatory networks coordinate development
- Combine mouse genetics with genomic and computational studies to define and experimentally test regulatory network structure and dynamics
- Specific components of evolutionarily conserved signaling pathways
- Generated a collection of Spry2 mutant mice that constitute an allelic series ranging from reduced expression to complete loss of Spry2 function
- Using these mice to examine how cross-talk between conserved pathways, such as FGF, BMP and SHH, guides dosage sensitive cellular interactions that shape developing structures
- Head and face, the branched architecture of the respiratory tree and the collecting ducts of the kidney
- Constructed a computational pipeline to search for patterns based on positional relationships between genes and putative regulatory modules
- Studying how the genome is organized to coordinate gene expression during development
- Evolve the structure of genomic regulatory networks that guide morphogenesis
- Use genetic screens to identify genes that are essential for mouse development
- Classic genetic resource in the mouse, the piebald deletion complex
- Perform genetic screens focusing on specific chromosomal regions
