Gerald R. Crabtree

Stanford University


Primary Section: 43, Immunology and Inflammation
Secondary Section: 41, Medical Genetics, Hematology, and Oncology
Membership Type:
Member (elected 1997)

Research Interests

The interests of our laboratory have centered about the origin of biologically specific patterns of transcription and the transfer of signals from the cell membrane to the nucleus. One major area of investigation in the laboratory is a signal transmission pathway involving Ca2+, the phosphatase calcineurin, and the NF-ATc family of transciption factors. Although we orignally defined the pathway in T lymphcoytes, it is now known to function in many cell types during development and to have roles in morphogensis and cell proliferation. A second interest in the laboratory relates to how signal transduction pathways lead to the remodeling of chromatin at specific genetic loci. We have isolated the genes for the 11 subunits of a chromatin remodeling complex related to the SWI/SNF complex in yeast and are gaining insights into how this complex responds to signals and is directed to specific chromosomal loci. Finally, we are developing new ways, based on induced proximity, of making conditional alleles of mammalian genes using synthetic ligands. We hope that our approach will bring about a new fusion of biochemical and genetic studies of fundamental biologic processes and give mouse genetics the power of temperature-sensitive alleles in other species. The latter studies were done in collaboration with Stuart Schreiber's laboratory in the Department of Chemistry at Harvard University.

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