Guertin, Michael J.
Primary Appointment
Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Education
- PhD, Molecular Biology and Genomics, Cornell University
- BS, Genetics and Development, Cornell University
Contact Information
PO Box 800733
1340 JPA Pinn Hall Room 6225A
Charlottesville, VA 22908
Telephone: 434-924-0328
Fax: 434-924-5069
Email: guertin@virginia.edu
Website: http://www.guertinlab.org
Research Disciplines
Biochemistry, Bioinformatics and Genomics, Cancer Biology, Computational Biology, Epigenetics, Genetics, Molecular Biology, Molecular Pharmacology, Translational Science
Research Interests
Transcription, Chromatin, Cancer, Molecular Biology, Genomics, and Computational Biology
Research Description
Precise regulation of transcription is central to cellular homeostasis and an organism's response to developmental, nutritional, and environmental signals. Transcription factors bind to DNA to directly regulate gene expression and control cell fate. My lab develops and adopts molecular genomics approaches to study regulatory cascades initiated by hormone signaling. Our current work focuses on the basic mechanisms of estrogen signaling in breast cancer and how signaling cascades are disrupted upon tamoxifen treatment. We also use integrative genomics approaches to study glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis in glucocorticoid-sensitive and resistant acute lymphocytic leukemia cells. A long-term goal of my group is to identify transcription factors that are responsible for hormone-resistant phenotypes in cancer cells.