The focus of our research program is the molecular mechanism of cell fate in stem cells, with focus on cell signaling, transcriptional regulatory and epigenetic pathways. We have recently identified a collection of structurally diverse and chemically interesting small molecules from a high throughput screen of the UTSW chemical library. These small molecules can instruct stem cells in fate decisions, providing an exciting new toolbox to explore mechanisms, and also providing the starting points for novel regenerative drug discovery. In addition to cardiac fate and developmental mechanisms, we have followed the chemical biology of these molecules into neuronal fate mechanisms and into the biology of the neural cancer stem cell.
