Hormone Action and Oncogenesis Section

We have developed a cell system to study the subcelluar trafficking and gene targeting by nuclear receptors in living cells. This system is based on the integration of a tandem array of MMTV reporter elements in chromosome 4 of a murine mammary carcinoma cell, 3134. Using this system, we are investigating the direct interaction of receptors with regulatory elements in real time. We are also using the system to study the precise nature of the chromatin structure that nuclear receptors recognize, and high order chromatin transitions that may be induced in this structure during gene activation.