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Dr. Stephen Tapscott studies how gene activity goes awry in diseases, focusing on how 'master' genes control the development of muscle and nerve cells. He is a leader in understanding the normal processes of cell development and how they are altered in diseases such as muscular dystrophy, a class of inherited disorders that cause muscles to weaken and atrophy over time, and rhabdomyosarcoma, a type of cancer that arises from muscle cells. Dr. Tapscott's team made significant breakthroughs unlocking the molecular secrets of common forms of muscular dystrophy, particularly facioscapulohumeral dystrophy (FSHD). He discovered that in individuals with FSHD, proteins that are normally present during early development are erroneously activated in muscle cells, which prevents muscle-cell regeneration and possibly triggers a damaging immune attack on the muscles.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center • Seattle, WA
Member of the Translational Data Science Integrated Research Center, focusing on research in human biology and clinical research.
University of Washington School of Medicine • Seattle, WA
Teaching and conducting research in the field of Neurology.
Fred Hutch provides training for many UW-affiliated PhD programs. This entry covers the interdisciplinary Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) program which encompasses departments like Biology, Medicine, and Human Biology.