- The focus of my lab is discover the cellular and molecular mechanisms controlling circadian rhythms, using Drosophila as our model organism.
- In my lab, we have developed several novel cell biological approaches that enabled, for the first time, studies of
clock protein, mRNA, and gene localization and dynamics in live clock neurons in intact organisms.
- My lab has made three key discoveries that have redefined our understanding of how circadian rhythms are regulated at the cellular level: 1) Clock proteins are dynamically sequestered away from chromatin into membrane-less condensates at the nuclear envelope to facilitate gene repression, 2) clock genes are clustered and positioned near the nuclear envelope, dependent on the Lamin B Receptor, 3) a specific intron in timeless mRNA undergoes post-transcriptional splicing at nuclear speckles, mediated by the RNA-binding protein qkr58E-2, introducing a critical time delay necessary for generating ~24-hour circadian rhythms. These findings highlight the complex spatiotemporal mechanisms that govern circadian rhythms.