Dr. José Arcadio Rodríguez-Martínez, assistant professor of our Biology Department obtained a $ 1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (SC1GM127231), to study the molecular behavior of proteins responsible for developing the human heart. Mutations in these proteins have been widely found in patients with Congenital Heart Diseases, the most common birth defect.
This project proposes an innovative approach to elucidate the functional landscape of mutations associated to congenital heart defects. Completion of this work will contribute to our understanding of heart defects at the molecular level and guide future strategies to prevent and treat them.
A long-term goal of the Rodriguez-Martinez’s lab is to uncover molecular mechanisms by which transcription factors interpret the information encoded in genomes, and how genetic variation modulates transcription factor-genome interactions to create diverse phenotypes, including disease. Its research interests lie at the interface of genomic sciences, molecular biology, biophysics, and technology development. Find out more about our work visiting the Rodriguez-Martinez’s laboratory.