Transcriptional programmes downstream of the activated glucocorticoid receptor

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BACKGROUND: This mechanism-based study is designed, by way of training high quality personnel (HQP), to characterise and promote understanding of the gene expression networks induced by the glucocorticoid receptor (GR/NR3C1). During stress, cortisol (a glucocorticoid) is produced by the adrenal cortex and is carried in the blood to target tissues. There, it acts on GR, a transcription factor that promotes breakdown of macromolecules to help maintain blood glucose during fasting and starvation. In infection and injury, glucocorticoids play a key survival role by reducing expression of mediators to dampen inflammation and promoting healing. Research, in my laboratory, focuses on how glucocorticoids act via GR to induce the expression of genes that are responsible for repressing inflammation. As lung epithelial cells are an important site of environmental insult and infection, they are used to model glucocorticoid-modulated gene expression.