People

Speech Mechanisms

A unique and defining trait of human behavior is our ability to communicate through speech. My laboratory is interested in determining the basic mechanisms that underlie speech perception and production.  While much of this processing has been localized to the peri-sylvian cortex, including Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, the fundamental organizational principles of these neural circuits are completely unknown.

Signaling Scaffold Proteins in Development and Major Psychiatric Disorders

Decoding human genetic disease allows us to develop models of the pathology that can be directly tested with gene correction or targeted drug therapy. Dominant negative mutations are particularly promising therapeutic targets since they are resistant to traditional therapies, yet precise excision of disease-causing allele could provide a cure. We are using patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to model diseases in tissues that are particularly susceptible to dominant negative mutations: cardiomyocytes, motor neurons and retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells.

Research Description

 The Corces Lab studies the gene-regulatory underpinnings of neurodegenerative disease. We utilize broad epigenomic and transcriptomic profiling of primary human disease tissue to generate hypotheses about the cell types and molecular mechanisms driving neurodegeneration. We then test these hypotheses using in vitro and murine model systems through large-scale screens (CRISPR / MPRA) and targeted molecular perturbation.

Current Projects

About four billion years ago, while earth was covered with a primordial soup enriched with the building blocks of life, the equal occurrence of chiral molecules (non-superimposable “left-handed” vs “right-handed” molecules) fell out of balance. As a consequence, today’s life is asymmetric.