Reading about research and publications of prospective PIs is a good thing. But you can't really decide your final PI unless and until you meet them personally and spend some time doing research under them. This experience will come through lab rotations. On deciding which labs to rotate I would suggest you to wait until your orientation where most of the PIs who will be accepting grad students for rotation will give a brief presentation of what research is going on in their labs and also which project is open for the student. So who knows? The proffs doing basic research (good ones) might start a new project in translational research for a new student.