David H. Price, PhD

Principal Investigator

Although I obtained a B.S. in Chemistry, I realized that I was more interested in the mechanisms of life. During my Ph.D. in Bill Marzluff's lab and postdoctoral stints at Caltech (Eric Davidson, Carl Parker) and Duke (Arno Greenleaf) I began to develop in vitro methods to study transcription and RNA processing. I started my lab at University of Iowa in 1989 and have worked since then to understand exactly how the elongation phase of transcription impacts eukaryotic gene expression. Discussing data and models with students and postdocs is my favorite pastime, but outside of lab I also enjoy the challenge of autocross.

Affiliation:  Molecular Medicine Program

Juan Santana

Research Associate

I have used CRISPR technology to edit genes encoding essential transcription factors so that they are fused to a degradation tag. Using the cell lines generated I examine the effect of rapid depletion of the factors on transcription using PRO-Seq and DFF-ChIP. Recently, I have been developing bioinformatics tools that improve our ability to visualize and quantify transcription complexes and surrounding chromatin features under different conditions.

Benjamin Spector

Research Assistant

I have developed methods to examine the function of Pol II transcription factors using in vitro transcription and techniques that utilize the DNA fragmentation factor (DFF) to visualize transcription complexes and their interactions with chromatin.