Semil Choksi

Tumor cell-adipocyte gap junctions activate lipolysis and contribute to breast tumorigenesis Nature Communications - Breast cancer cells interact with neighbouring adipocytes, but the mechanisms are not fully understood. Here, the authors show that triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)...

New work from stellar scientists Jeremy Williams and Roman Camarda. Many contributors including the amazing Zena Werb and Atul Butte

Work explores how breast cancer cells interact directly with adipocytes via gap junctions, leading to lipid release.
@ctbatucsf.bsky.social @ucsfcancer.bsky.social

The nuclear periphery confers repression on H3K9me2-marked genes and transposons to shape cell fate - Nature Cell Biology Marin et al. report the role of lamin proteins and the lamin B receptor (LBR) in chromatin positioning at the nuclear periphery. Knockout of all lamins and LBR in mouse embryonic stem cells leads to h...

Another paper bluetorial! Today: how does the spatial location of genes influence their function? (1/n) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I'm happy people can read the final version of this paper! See what happens when we detach heterochromatin from the nuclear periphery in mouse stem cells:

Primary cilia and BBS4 are required for postnatal pituitary development Primary cilia orchestrate several signaling pathways, and their disruption results in pleiotropic disorders called ciliopathies. Bardet Beidl syndrome (BBS), one such ciliopathy, provides insights int...

‼️🚨Preprint alert! 🚨‼️
Excited to have some of my first works as a postdoc, and first corresponding author (!!), on biorxiv! This was a fun side quest of a project marrying a few things I deeply love, development, cilia, and hormones in the pituitary! Happy reading!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Thank you, Dagmar!!!

Congratulations, @semilc.bsky.social! Are you interested in the fascinating world of motile cilia? Consider coming to this lab to explore this awesome biology!

Thanks all - I can't wait to start!

Thanks Andrei!

CTB welcomes new Assistant Professor Semil Choksi @semilc.bsky.social to the department! The Choksi Lab will study how airway stem cells generate multiciliated cells - and how this process goes wrong in respiratory disease. His lab is opening this August. Visit choksilab.org to learn more!

We are thrilled that @semilc.bsky.social and the Choksi Lab will be part of our RMB community! 🎉

Circular lab logo consisting of a ball of cells labeled with cyan nuclei and red cilia, surrounded by a white circle and the text Choksi Lab and UCSF. The 'o' in Choksi is a schematic of a multiciliated cell.

I'm thrilled to announce that my lab is opening this August in the Department of Cell & Tissue Biology @ UCSF!

We will study airway stem cells and explore how they generate multiciliated cells (my favorite!) to keep pathogens and debris out of the lung. Check out choksilab.org for more!

UCSF’s Fred Chang Is Honored with Election to AAAS Cell biologist Fred Chang, MD, PhD, has been named a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a highly esteemed lifetime honor within the scientific community.

I'm thrilled to share that CTB faculty Fred Chang has been elected as a AAAS fellow! Congratulations to Fred on this well-deserved honor. @fredchanglab.bsky.social @ctbatucsf.bsky.social

www.ucsf.edu/news/2025/03/429681/ucsfs-fred-chang-honored-election-aaas

UCSF, like all UC campuses, announced an immediate hiring freeze today. UCSF is the second largest employer in the city. There will be wide ripple effects in the Bay Area and beyond, including the future of biotech and pharma in the area. 🧪

A reminder to colleagues interested in Cell-Matrix adhesion & anything ECM related that registration is now open for the Fibronectin, Integrins & related molecules Gordon Research Conference. Incredible list speakers! incredible location! it will 🔥 🔥 🔥 Please join us! www.grc.org/fibronectin-...

Are you a trainee interested in cilia? Or mucus? Or mucocliloary interactions? Register for the GRS (www.grc.org/cilia-mucus-...)! We are selecting talks for the cilia session soon, so submit your abstracts asap to be considered!

Are you a trainee interested in cilia? Or mucus? Or mucocliloary interactions? Register for the GRS (www.grc.org/cilia-mucus-...)! We are selecting talks for the cilia session soon, so submit your abstracts asap to be considered!

Delighted to share our new preprint on the cell biology and genome of Stentor pyriformis, a giant ciliate that maintains Chlorella endosymbionts in surface-associated microtubule baskets.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Cilia alert! Stoked for our new paper in Dev. Cell! Our cross-linking mass spec interactome for motile cilia provides some cool new insights into motile ciliopathy. Helmed by @computingcaitie.bsky.social, read her fantastic Bluetorial below (👇)!

www.cell.com/developmenta...

I am excited to share some of my PhD work on the motile cilia interactome revealed by XL/MS with @jbwallingford.bsky.social @edwardmarcotte.bsky.social Ophelia Papoulas, Chanjae Lee, David Taylor, and @builab.bsky.social www.cell.com/developmenta...

Super excited to announce my new lab at the University of Michigan opening Jan 2025! 🎉We’ll study how cells work together to shape the GI tract, with ties to regeneration & disease.

Hiring at all levels—esp. a research tech to help launch the lab! Info: huyckelab.org

#DevBio #CellBio #Hiring

Convergence of autism proteins at the cilium Hundreds of high confidence autism genes have been identified, yet the relevant etiological mechanisms remain unclear. Gene ontology analyses have repeatedly identified enrichment of proteins with ann...

Check out our new ✨preprint ✨📝 describing extraordinary convergence of autism proteins at the cilium, a 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (1/ )

Dynamic behavior and lineage plasticity of the pulmonary venous endothelium - Nature Cardiovascular Research Wong et al. identify Slc6a2 as a marker of pulmonary venous endothelial cells and demonstrate that these cells differentiate into capillary endothelial cells during vascular regeneration after lung in...

Out today, our newest paper in Nature Cardiovascular Research! A Herculean effort by an amazing grad student Joanna Wong. In short, we demonstrate pulmonary veins sprout and differentiate into capillary cells after severe lung injury. www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Ultrastructure expansion microscopy (U‐ExM) of mouse and human kidneys for analysis of subcellular structures Ultrastructure expansion microscopy (U-ExM) involves the physical magnification of specimens embedded in hydrogels, which allows for super-resolution imaging of subcellular structures using a convent...

My first post on Bluesky.
Check out the paper with my colleague Moe Mahjoub on expansion microscopy in kidneys

dx.doi.org/10.1002/cm.2...

Cilia structure and intraflagellar transport differentially regulate sensory response dynamics within and between C. elegans chemosensory neurons The relative contributions of intraflagellar transport (IFT) and cilia structure to sensory neuron responses remains unclear. This study reveals unexpected complexity in the contribution of IFT and ci...

🧪 Lab's latest!! Work by PD (and now PI) Alison Philbrook.
C. elegans sensory neurons have gorgeous #cilia. We’ve always thought that a) no cilia = no sensory responses, & b) no IFT = no cilia. Punchline is we thought wrong. Read paper for more!
#neuroscience
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Graphical abstract of the study

Out now in Dev Cell! scRNAseq trajectories describe the cascade of gene expression as cells differentiate, but turning them into a clear understanding of the underlying biology of a cell type's development remains challenging. authors.elsevier.com/c/1k9qj5Sx5g... (1/)

Would love to be added, thanks!

This just out from grad student Samantha Bromley-Coolidge with help from Regis University undergrad Diego Iruegas. By the way, Regis has an awesome neuroscience program. If one of their students applies to your grad program, give them a close look!
authors.elsevier.com/a/1k7nr14Yy4...

For anything stem cell and pluripotency-related: go.bsky.app/UTW4d7b

Immunofluorescence staining of airway organoid, stained for cilia (red) and a motile cilia transcription factor (cyan).

Check out this airway organoid stained for cilia (red) and a transcription factor, FOXJ1 (cyan), dedicated to generating motile cilia. This organoid was grown from mouse airway stem cells using a protocol developed by Brigid Hogan's lab (Rock et al., PNAS 2009).