Our research has a major focus on osteopontin, particularly its role in metastatic diseases and mechanotransduction. OPN appears to be required for normal bone remodeling and for moderating the response of the body to certain forms of infection and injury.
Considerable evidence suggests that it facilitates the metastatic process.
Ongoing laboratory research supported by the NIH and detaled below is focused on identifying genes whose expression it controls and elucidating signal transduction pathways stimulated by osteopontin. In the last couple of years we have focused much of our research on the role of OPN in mechanotransduction. Recent experimental observations support this hypothesis. We speculate that OPN, functioning as both a cell adhesion molecule and a cell signaling molecule, communicates a signal to the cell when the cell is mechanically stressed, by fluid flow for example. As one aspect of this research, we are studying the kind of signal that OPN delivers in conjunction with CD44, the classical hyaluronate receptor.