His research focuses on histone and chromatin modifications, epigenetics and gene function, identification of histone binding modules, and small RNA directed gene silencing.His lab, the Taverna Laboratory, studies how histone marks and the proteins that “read” them may dictate chromatin-templated functions like transcriptional activation and gene silencing, as well as how these on/off states are inherited/ propagated.Dr. Taverna was awarded the 2011 Mentor of the Year award from the JHU Graduate Student Association.