His research interests are focused on the mechanisms of self-renewal and differentiation of stem cells. His lab investogates both cellular and molecular aspects of these processes using human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) as well as mouse neural stem cells. They recently developed a unique system allowing uniform differentiation of hESCs into multipotent neural precursors, allowing them to investigate the early events during hESC differentiation and to test the strategies for stem cell therapies. The lab is also fascinated with the biology of Maternal Embryonic Leucine zipper Kinase (MELK), working in close collaboration with the laboratory of Harley Kornblum, UCLA.