The Norris Lab
Research Interests
The Norris lab is a multidisciplinary environment with students and postdocs using various molecular, biochemical, biomechanical and "omic" tools to understand a host of common and rare connective tissue diseases. Our lab has spent the past 2 decades understanding the genetics of various syndromic and non-syndromic cardiovascular diseases such as mitral valve and aortic valve diseases and cardiomyopathies. Recently, we identified a very strong candidate gene for hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a "not so rare" connective tissue disease that affects collagen-rich tissues. Using state of the art CRISPR-Cas9 mediated genome editing, we successfully generate mouse models of human diseases to study how the various diseases initiate and progress. Understanding the pathways that cause altered biology has led to development of druggable pathways that are at various stages of development to treat mitral and aortic valve diseases as well as hypermobile EDS. We have developed IRB approved clinical registries for some of these diseases and actively recruit patients to build out our genetic discoveries. Ultimately, we are developing platforms that will lead to off-the-shelf personalized medicine treatment for these rare and common diseases.
For more information about the Norris lab, please visit https://www.thenorrislab.com/
For additional queries on how you can be involved in our research, please send an email to EDSregistry@musc.edu.
For those wanting to accelerate discoveries in connective tissue diseases such as Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and/or heart valve diseases, donations can be made to the Norris Lab through this MUSC link: https://connect2.musc.edu/com and click on EDS research in regenerative medicine to donate what you wish.
