The laboratory investigates how 5'UTR heterogeneity impacts translational readout and how disruptions in its regulation through promoter usage or alternative splicing can impair cellular function. Initial focus was on tumor suppressor gene MDM2 with heterogeneity from alternative promoters and transcription factor ELK1 from alternative splicing. Recent work includes genome-wide RNAseq analysis of total and polysomal mRNA populations in human tumors using polysomal and ribosomal profiling to examine impacts of 5'UTR variant profile changes on tumor phenotype.