Areas of Interest
Cells are tasked with the challenge of responding and adapting to a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic stressors such as heat, viruses, unfolded proteins, and nutrient deprivation on a daily basis. The integrated stress response (ISR) is an evolutionarily conserved pathway that encompasses the recognition of these stressors by eIF2alpha kinases that subsequently suppress global translation. This suppression is coupled with the formation of RNA-protein condensates called stress granules, the upregulation of stress specific genes (e.g., ATF4 and GADD34), and the promotion of noncanonical modes of translation. My work takes advantage of many genetic techniques to better understand how cells confer resilience to environmental stressors in the context of health and disease.