Research Interests:

I am interested in characterizing the phenotype of the connexin 43 knockout mouse at the cellular and molecular level, looking at changes in signal transduction pathways and gene expression levels.  I am investigating the changes in the cardiac phenotype of the knockout mouse, focusing specifically on cardiomyocyte cell size changes and on gene expression level changes in the conotruncal region of the heart using microarray analysis.  I am also involved in a project that aims to produce 3D imaging maps of gene expression. We are developing a prototype instrument that automates sectioning and 3-D reconstruction of a sample such as the heart or a whole embryo, followed by laser capture and microarray analysis of the entire sample.  The gene expression information we obtain will then be mapped back to the original 3-dimensional heart or embryo, creating a gene expression profile and searchable database.