Vivian Bardwell, PhD

The Bardwell laboratory is interested in the mechanisms of transcriptional repression and how inappropriate transcriptional regulation leads to cancer and developmental disorders. There are two major ongoing projects in the laboratory. One project focuses on the transcriptional corepressor BCOR, a component of a variant Polycomb repressive complex 1 (PRC1) complex. BCOR mediates regulation by the BCL6 oncoprotein in lymphomas but in other cancers mutations of BCOR have been found in a variety of cancer suggesting it functions as on tumor suppressor gene. Germline mutation of BCOR in females causes the X-linked developmental disorder Oculofaciocardiodental syndrome, OFCD. The other project is a longtime collaboration with David Zarkower on DMRT1, a transcription factor that plays critical roles in suppressing testis cancer, lineage restriction, maintenance of sex determination and testis development. Both projects combine in vivo studies of mouse development and cancer with in vitro biochemical and mechanistic studies.