I am investigating how neutrophil signaling pathways are wired to separately control degranulation and chemotaxis behaviors. Interestingly, the chemicals and receptors that activate chemotaxis in neutrophils also activate degranulation (exocytosis of granule contents), yet the responses are coordinated and separated during physiological responses. I hypothesize that degranulation and chemotaxis signaling components diverge downstream of activating receptors to allow distinct regulation of the two responses. The goal of my project is to characterize the unique molecular components of the degranulation response that are distinct from chemotaxis. This will be critical to our long-term goal to engineer separable control of neutrophil recruitment and degranulation for use in emerging immunotherapy strategies.

• Histone H3 tail binds a unique sensing pocket in EZH2 to activate the PRC2 methyltransferase. April 23, 2019. PNAS.
• S-adenosyl methionine is necessary for inhibition of the methyltransferase G9a by the lysine 9 to methionine mutation on histone H3. May 16, 2016. PNAS.
• Histone H3K36 mutations promote sarcomagenesis through altered histone methylation landscape. May 13, 2016. Science.