Medical School
Twin Cities
The Kawakami lab investigates mechanisms of mammalian embryonic development during early post-gastrulation stages. Of particular interest are the functions of several developmental regulator transcription factors and epigenetic regulation. Specifically, the group studies the function of Sall1, Sall4, Irx3, Irx5, Plzf, Isl1, and Gli3 during embryo body elongation, neuromesodermal progenitor specification and differentiation, and limb progenitor specification and morphogenesis. They use bulk RNA-seq, single cell RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, ChIP-seq, and more recently, CUT&RUN and CUT&Tag. In the past, most of the group's work focused on Sall4, and they are now expanding our research to the other transcription factors listed above. Moreover, previous studies were conducted with mouse models (knockout, transgenic), and the group recently started to use human stem cell differentiation models. These studies will contribute to understanding fundamental developmental mechanisms in mouse models and help translating the results to understand human biology.
Research by this group was featured on the MSI website in March 2022: Investigating Cushing's Disease.