RANDALL PETERSON, PhD

http://www.massgeneral.org/cvrc/faculty_peterson_home.html

About Randy Peterson

Randy Peterson is Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Assistant Professor of Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and an associate member at the Broad Institute.

His research focuses on chemical and genetic approaches to studying diseases of the blood and the circulatory system. The Peterson Lab uses high-throughput chemical screens in intact zebrafish to identify small molecules that perturb normal development or that suppress disease phenotypes in zebrafish disease models. With these small molecules, the laboratory can investigate different biological processes, including arterial-venous fate specification, cardiac chamber patterning and hematopoietic differentiation.

In addition, some of the disease-suppressing compounds with therapeutic potential can be further studied using zebrafish and mammalian models of disease.

Research

The Peterson Lab is working to discover small molecules for use as biological probes and therapeutic agents. Our lab is using chemical and genetic approaches to study embryonic development, especially the formation of blood and the circulatory system.

We use high-throughput chemical screens in intact zebrafish to identify small molecules that perturb development or that suppress disease phenotypes in zebrafish models of disease. We are using the small molecules we have discovered to dissect such processes as arterial-venous fate specification, cardiac chamber patterning, and hematopoietic differentiation. Some of the disease-suppressing compounds may also have therapeutic potential and are being developed further using zebrafish and mammalian models of disease.

Lab Personnel