Dr. Barr's research interest is molecular genetics of cancer with a focus on recurrent chromosomal alterations in sarcomas. His research team has most recently been conducting a multidisciplinary approach to understand the biological consequences of these genetic events in rhabdomyosarcoma, a family of pediatric soft tissue cancers. Major focal points of this research program are fusions of the PAX3 or PAX7 gene with the FOXO1 (FKHR) gene to generate fusion oncoproteins, the amplification of several oncogenic loci, and genome-wide changes in DNA methylation. These studies revealed that the gene fusions result in an aberrant gene expression program that contributes to tumorigenesis. Amplification events involving known and new candidate oncogenes occur in specific gene fusion subsets and are associated with distinct clinical outcomes. Distinct DNA methylation patterns are associated with the fusion-positive and fusion-negative subtypes of rhabdomyosarcoma. Current studies are examining tumorigenic effects, functional domains, downstream targets, regulation of gene expression, and clinical applications.