Gene Expression Laboratory
The Gene Expression Lab, under the direction of
Dominic Cosgrove, Ph.D., has two main areas of interest:
Both of the above syndromes are currently untreatable hereditary diseases and have the common feature of sensorineural deafness of hearing loss. The shared feature to our approach is to understand the cellular dysfunctions resulting from mutations in the genes that cause the syndromes. This involves the use of modern molecular biology and biochemistry methodologies to probe the normal function of the proteins encoded by these genes, and the use of animal model and cell culture systems to probe the molecular mechanism of disease onset and progression that occurs when the proteins are dysfunctional or absent. Since both diseases have delayed onset and progressive characteristics to their respective pathologies, there is a window of opportunity for targeted therapeutic intervention aiming to delay onset and/or slow the progression of the disease.
