The Burdine laboratory focuses on two main areas of research 1) understanding how epigenetic proteins regulate pancreatic tumor response to chemotherapy and 2) identifying targets for the development of immunosuppression therapies for solid organ transplant patients. Specifically, we study how the epigenetic protein ATAD2 which is highly expressed in pancreatic cancer as well as other cancers modifies a tumor cell’s response to chemotherapy. It is our belief that understanding pathways of chemoresistance can identifying novel and beneficial targets for pancreatic cancer therapy.