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Research in the Cox lab is aimed at understanding the genetic and epigenetic contributions that govern normal facial development and determine an individual’s susceptibility to common craniofacial malformations, such as cleft lip/palate and craniofacial microsomia.

Dr. Spletter's research interests lie in understanding how the regulation of RNA processing and alternative splicing defines the structure and function of muscles. Our bodies contain hundreds of different muscles that have distinct morphological and contractile properties. In muscle disease and atrophy, changes in RNA regulation contribute to muscle malfunction. To understand how these changes alter muscle biology, the Spletter lab uses the powerful genetic model organism Drosophila melanogaster. Many of the RNA binding proteins that regulate RNA processing in muscle, such as CELF, RBFOX and MBNL family proteins, are also found in flies, and structural components as well as the mechanism of muscle contraction are highly conserved. Dr. Spletter's lab focuses on how changes in gene isoform expression alter the construction of the myofibril cytoskeleton and the regulation of actomyosin interactions. They employ a wide variety of experimental techniques, merging classic genetic analysis with live-imaging, confocal microscopy, biochemistry, and transcriptomics. Their work provides disease-relevant insight into the developmental functions of RNA binding proteins, affords a more detailed understanding of the process of sarcomere assembly and reveals conserved mechanisms by which muscles employ RNA regulation to fine-tune their contractile properties.