Joan V. Ruderman

My lab investigates the pathways that control cell-cycle progression. We are trying to understand how different cyclins program cdc2 and related kinases for different cell cycle events and what controls cyclin destruction in human cells. We also study an unusual signal transduction system in oocytes where the steroid hormone progesterone binds an unidentified membrane-associated receptor and activates a signaling pathway that leads to translational activation of stored mRNAs encoding proteins that break cell-cycle arrest.