Name: Dr. Miler T Lee

Position: Assistant Professor of Biology

Research Description:

For most animals and plants, the genetic instructions that guide early embryogenesis are inherited as RNA. During a short window of development, these RNA coordinate all cellular activity, including the processes that induce the first rounds of transcription from the embryonic genome. Eventually those maternally inherited RNA are destroyed, as newly transcribed embryonic RNA assume control of the embryo. This period of development is called the maternal-to-zygotic transition.

My Lab studies gene regulation during the earliest stages of embryonic development, using high-throughput experimental and computational genomics.

Maternally inherited RNA encode the instructions to reprogram an egg into pluripotent embryonic stem cells, the precursors to all cell types in the adult organism.  We study eggs, embryos, and their RNA and genomes to better understand the mechanisms underlying cellular identity and pluripotency, and how they have evolved.  Our tool kit includes genetics, embryology, and high-throughput experimental and computational genomics across animals, including (so far) zebrafish, Xenopus, and the cnidarian Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus.

Lab Memberships

Laboratory of Miler T. Lee (Principal Investigator/Director)

Contact Information

Email: miler@pitt.edu