Benjamin King Laboratory

Systems Biology

Many aspects of human health can be traced to the ability of cells to sense and respond to infection, injury or other environmental changes.  Cells orchestrate these essential biological processes through complex networks of genes, proteins and metabolites.  The focus of our laboratory is to utilize genomic, computational and experimental approaches to understand the mechanisms of stress responses.  Increased understanding of how these networks normally function will inform the development of therapies that restore their function when needed.

Within these networks, genes function together with multiple layers of genetic regulation that include both protein coding and non-coding genes.  Network models provide a powerful framework to predict the regulatory roles of genes.  Current projects involve using genome-level data to build and analyze these networks.  A specific focus is on non-coding RNAs, including microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs, that have important regulatory roles in heath and disease.