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Joel Pomerantz, Ph.D.

Research Summary

The Pomerantz lab studies the molecular machinery used by cells to interpret extracellular signals and transduce them to the nucleus to effect changes in gene expression, which results in a cell’s decision to proliferate, differentiate, or die. The dysregulation of this machinery underlies the unwarranted expansion or destruction of cell numbers that occurs in human diseases like cancer, autoimmunity, hyperinflammatory states, and neurodegenerative disease.

Currently the research team studies signaling pathways that are important in innate immunity, adaptive immunity, and in cancer, paying particular attention to pathways that regulate the activity of the pleiotropic transcription factor NF-kappaB. One molecule that signals to NF-kappaB is CARD11 and the team is investigating the biochemical mechanisms by which CARD11 transduces signals from the T cell receptor to NF-kappaB. Using a new expression cloning strategy designed to isolate molecules that signal to NF-kappaB in lymphocytes, the team has cloned several novel signaling molecules that activate the NF-kappaB or NFAT transcription factors and is currently working to better understand their mechanisms of action.

Lastly, the team is interested in the design of artificial cellular signaling circuits, which would provide new tools for controlling gene expression to be used in biological research and to engineer cell fate decisions in novel therapeutic approaches.