What is the DIR?
The DIR research program is a multidisciplinary environment that investigates the physics, chemistry, and biology of cells; the processes that govern and regulate cellular function; and the effects when these processes fail. The Division includes 60 tenured and tenure-track investigators, organized into 12 affinity groups, and approximately 250 postbaccalaureate, clinical, and postdoctoral fellows and graduate students.
DIR research addresses several fundamental questions:
- How do cells transmit signals from the outside environment to the nucleus, initiate gene expression and replication, and then translate molecular responses into changes in function, differentiation, and communication with the cells' neighbors and environment?
- How do cells talk to one another, identifying their properties and location to give rise to tissues and organs?
- How are these processes integrated during embryonic, fetal, and postnatal development?
- When these processes go awry and disease ensues, how may we intervene and treat the disease?
Most DIR laboratories are located on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, or in nearby Rockville. DIR also has a lab focused on perinatal research and obstetrics in Detroit, Michigan.
