Price research

The Price Lab is committed to defining the basic mechanisms that regulate transcription by RNA polymerase II. We apply both biochemical, molecular, and global bioinformatics tools to understand how transcription is controlled in the context of chromatin. Most of our current work is focused on human cells and the viruses that infect them.

Learn more about research in the Price Lab on the current projects page.

Recent Publications

Santana JF, Collins GS, Parida M, Luse DS, Price DH (2022) Differential dependencies of human RNA polymerase II promoters on TBP, TAF1, TFIIB and XPB. Nucleic Acids Res. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkac678.

Ball CB, Li M, Parida M, Hu Q, Ince D, Collins GS, Meier JL, and Price DH (2022) Human Cytomegalovirus IE2 Both Activates and Represses Initiation and Modulates Elongation in a Context-Dependent Manner mBio doi: 10.1128/mbio.00337-22.

Spector BM, Parida M, Li M, Ball CB, Meier JL, Luse DS, Price DH (2022) Differences in RNA polymerase II complexes and their interactions with surrounding chromatin on human and cytomegalovirus genomes Nat Commun. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-29739-x.

Ball CB, Parida M, Li M, Spector BM, Suarez GA, Meier JL, Price DH (2022) Human Cytomegalovirus Infection Elicits Global Changes in Host Transcription by RNA Polymerases I, II, and III, Viruses, doi: 10.3390/v14040779.

Ball CB, Parida M, Santana JF, Spector BM, Suarez GA, Price DH, Nuclear export restricts Gdown1 to a mitotic function. Nucleic Acids Res. 2022 Jan 20:gkac015. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkac015.

Li M, Hu Q, Collins GS, Parida M, Ball C.B., Price DH, and Meier,JL (2021) Cytomegalovirus Late Transcription Factor Target Sequence Diversity Orchestrates Viral Early to Late Transcription PLoS Pathog. 17(8):e1009796. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009796.

Luse DS Parida M, Spector BM, Nilson KA, and Price DH (2020) A Unified View of the Sequence and Functional Organization of the Human RNA Polymerase II Promoter, Nucleic Acids Res. 48(14):7767-7785. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkaa531.

Li M, Ball CB, Hu Q, Luse DS, Price DH, and Meier J. (2020) Human cytomegalovirus IE2 drives transcription initiation from a select subset of late infection viral promoters by host RNA polymerase II. PLoS Pathog. 2020 Apr 6;16(4):e1008402. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1008402.

Visit Google Scholar for all of Dr. Price's publications.

Events

Ramon and Victoria Lim Medical Science Lectureship - Wei Yang, PhD promotional image

Ramon and Victoria Lim Medical Science Lectureship - Wei Yang, PhD

Thursday, April 16, 2026 3:00pm to 4:00pm
Medical Education Research Facility

The Ramon and Victoria Lim Medical Science Lectureship Fund was created in 2004 with a generous gift from Drs. Ramon and Victoria Lim. The fund supports the visits to Iowa City of eminent scientists working in neuroscience and internal medicine.

2026 Lecture:
Wei Yang, PhD

NIH Distinguished Investigator
Section Chief: Mechanism of DNA Repair, Replication, and Recombination
Section, Laboratory of Molecular Biology
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

"From RAG to...

Biology Seminar: "What can Arp2/3-branded actin do for you?" promotional image

Biology Seminar: "What can Arp2/3-branded actin do for you?"

Friday, April 17, 2026 3:30pm
Biology Building East
The Department of Biology’s seminar speaker on Friday, April 17, is James Bear, PhD, a Professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Physiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His seminar will be held at 3:30pm in Kollros Auditorium (Room 101), Biology Building East (BBE).
College of Pharmacy PSET Seminar Series: Eric Sundberg, PhD promotional image

College of Pharmacy PSET Seminar Series: Eric Sundberg, PhD

Tuesday, April 21, 2026 11:30am
College of Pharmacy Building

The Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Experimental Therapeutics (PSET) in the College of Pharmacy will host a seminar presented by: 

Eric Sundberg, PhD
Professor and Chair
Department of Biochemistry
Emory University School of Medicine
Atlanta, Georgia

All are welcome to attend. No pre-registration required.