Dr. Randall Urban, VP and Chief Research Officer, has determined that UTMB research should be prioritized into six health communities. This researcher has received the following badge(s):

Dr. Fagg's lab studies how post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression influences cell fate decisions. Dr. Fagg received his PhD from the RNA Center for Molecular Biology at UC-Santa Cruz, under the supervision of Manny Ares Jr (Distinguished Professor of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology and HHMI Professor) where he studied regulation of alternative splicing. He has taken that foundation and broadened his approach to understand how regulated RNA processing can influence cell fate decisions. He is applying this fundamental field of study to several different contexts, including development/stem cell differentiation, liver and heart disease, and regenerative medicine. His lab uses a variety of experimental approaches including genomics and proteomics, computational investigation, molecular genetics, cell biology, and biochemistry to find everything from systems-level evidence, down to specific gene/nucleotide sequences that can influence gene expression. The overall goal is to learn how the coordinated flow of molecular genetic information is regulated in development and use this to inform us and the greater scientific community of how to potentially "fix" this when it goes awry in disease or degenerative conditions.