The Dr. James Broach lab has studied a variety of biological processes using the yeast Saccharomyces as a model system. These studies have focused primarily on the interaction of cells with their environment, exploring the nature of signaling pathways that cells use to perceive their nutritional state - such as the Ras/protein kinase A pathway and the Target of Rapamycin Complex – and the transcriptional and metabolic responses of those cells to changes in nutritional state. More recently, the lab has focused on the cell’s stress response, using single cell imaging and genome sequencing-based studies of chromatin structure and transcriptional remodeling. These studies yielded the remarkable finding that genetically identical cells in the same environment mount quite different responses to an applied stress, allowing the population as a whole to hedge its bets regarding the best survival strategy in the face of an uncertain future.