Dr. Pickart has a longstanding interest in understanding complex disease and treatment response genetics. His early doctoral research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison profiled cellular and molecular responses of head and neck squamous cell cancer following combined cetuximab and radiation treatment. Although stratified epithelia, including skin and oral mucosa, generally remain a primary tissue focus, current work includes studies of vascular and connective tissues as well. As an outgrowth of post-doctoral investigations at the University of Minnesota using antisense morpholino oligonucleotides to identify developmental phenotypes in zebrafish, his work also explores the potential of antisense chemicals as transient or permanent modifiers of gene expression in cell and animal models. Current collaborative work with faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Medical College of Wisconsin is utilizing antisense approaches in zebrafish to evaluate human sequence variants with potential to contribute to vertebral structural defects. This relatively new line of research aims to optimize zebrafish approaches for direct clinical impact and to foster a systems medicine approach to understand how rare sequence variants contribute to complex, multifactorial biology, disease, and treatment response.

Dr. Pickart is also very active in partnerships for science education that facilitate learning through collaborative and authentic research experiences for K-16 students.