Cells sense their changing environments through signaling pathways that are assembled by the interactions between proteins. These signaling pathways are dynamic, depending on both the formation and disassembly of protein complexes, and cellular architecture plays a critical role in controlling this process. The contributions of cell architecture, however, are lost during traditional biochemical analysis. A major challenge facing biomedical research is to determine the mechanisms that control the assembly of regulatory protein complexes in their natural environment inside the cell, and to understand how disease processes affect these activities. This information will be critical to unraveling the basis of disease, and to the design of therapeutic strategies.

Our laboratory has focused on defining how the structural organization within the nucleus functions to control of pituitary endocrine cell gene expression. We are using biochemical and molecular analysis in combination with the microscopic imaging of living cells to define how networks of protein interactions orchestrate cell-specific gene expression. The results of our studies are showing how disease-causing mutations can disrupt networks of protein interactions in the cell nucleus, and these results have broad implications for many human diseases.

Contact Us
Richard N. Day, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Departments of Medicine and Cell Biology
University of Virginia

Phone: (434) 982-3623 (office) or (434) 982-3622 (lab)
FAX: (434) 982-0088
Email:
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Mailing Address:
Box 800578 HSC
University of Virginia Health Services
Charlottesville, VA 22908-0578

Express Mail Address:
1400 Jefferson Park Avenue
Hospital West Room MSB 7121

Find us
The laboratory is located on the 7th floor of the Old Hospital West Complex (map 34) at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

Link to Biomedical Sciences Web page