WashU Ciliopathy Research Group

Checkout the new preprint from @horanilab.bsky.social 👇

Happy Halloween everyone! 🎃

#Actin and #cilia fans, we have a #FREE ACCESS #Review #article available for you in #CYTOSKELETON! The Role of #Microfilaments in Cilia Formation and Function. Read it here for FREE: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Despite the mess, we are grateful to be funded, have exciting science happening, and have an opening for a postdoc!

If you are interested in sensory biology and esp in cilia, thermosensation, or interoception, and would like to join an interactive & supportive group - please email.

Please RT 🙏

Polychaete larva cilia currents in timelapse. #sciart #microscopy #plankton

New research has unravelled the mystery of how microscopic cilia choreograph their “Mexican wave”, enabling marine creatures to swim.

Cilia are tiny, hair-like protrusions found in many organisms. Yet despite decades of research, the mechanisms of cilia coordination remained disputed.

Our collaboration with @mbonhivers.bsky.social is now out in @plosbiology.org! 🎉Using U-ExM, we mapped the formation of the flagellar pocket collar in T. brucei. Huge thanks to everyone involved — one step closer to #PhDone!

#ExM #oneringtorulethemall #Bilbo1 #trypanosoma #protistsonsky

I am excited to share the new PCD diagnostic guidelines.
A great collaboration with PCD experts from all over the world.

publications.ersnet.org/content/erj/...

It's another NOA day!

So happy and relieved to finally get this. What started out as a crazy idea pitched to the @wu-ciliopathygroup.bsky.social team a couple of years ago is now a fully funded project.

Major thanks to NHLBI for continuing to fund our work on motile ciliopathies 🙏

BSCB GenSoc UK Cilia and Centrosome Network e-Symposia Series BSCB GenSoc UK Cilia and Centrosome Network e-Symposia Series

Peak #SummerFun- our amazing line-up for our 52nd @bscb-official.bsky.social @gensocuk.bsky.social @ukcilianetwork.bsky.social e-symposium 19/08/2025 15:00-17:45 is now live! Join us for all things #cilia & #centrosomes- free & open to all. Register for here- www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1220921258...

We'll be there 👌
#Cilia2027

Excited to be involved with this work driven by @dremilygoldberg.bsky.social and her team! Read the preprint now!

"Neutrophil TLR2 signaling promotes lipid accumulation and vascular plaque growth"

The nucleus is fantastic, but can it beat #cilia and #flagella 😉 here stained for tubulin (magenta) with an intraflagellar transport train (green) after #expansion microscopy and #STED or shown by classic TEM. JCS @jcellsci.bsky.social found the solution and is featuring both! 😍

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...

Juhi Narula and Sarah Wignall (@sadiewignall.bsky.social) identify a new role for the conserved kinase PLK-1 in suppressing centrosome maturation in oocytes, which surprisingly is opposite to its role in mitosis. rupress.org/jcb/article/...

#CellCycle #Genetics #Cytoskeleton #Development

Figure showing microtubule-nucleating activity of CDK5RAP2 scaffolds with γ-TuRCs.

Manolo Rios, Jeffrey Woodruff and colleagues use purified human proteins to define the minimal modules for centrosome scaffold assembly and microtubule aster nucleation.

journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

Identification of new ciliary signaling pathways in the brain and insights into neurological disorders Primary cilia are conserved sensory hubs essential for signaling transduction and embryonic development. Ciliary dysfunction causes a variety of developmental syndromes with neurological features and ...

in vivo BioID (iBioID) labeling of primary cilia in neurons on mice and identifying new signaling pathways in them. Cool new work from Sarah Goatz's lab. www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...

Cilia in the #brain display region-dependent oscillations of length and orientation by Roudabeh Vakil Monfared, Sherif Abdelkarim, Pieter Derdeyn, Kiki Chen, Hanting Wu, Kenneth Leong, Tiffany Chang, Justine Lee, Sara Versales, Surya M. Nauli, Kevin Beier, Pierre Baldi, Amal Alachkar In this study, we conducted high-throughput spatiotemporal analysis of primary cilia length and orientation across 22 mouse brain regions. We developed automated image analysis algorithms, which enabled us to examine over 10 million individual cilia, generating the largest spatiotemporal atlas of cilia. We found that cilia length and orientation display substantial variations across different brain regions and exhibit fluctuations over a 24-h period, with region-specific peaks during light-dark phases. Our analysis revealed unique orientation patterns of cilia, suggesting that cilia orientation within the brain is not random but follows specific patterns. Using BioCycle, we identified rhythmic fluctuations in cilia length across five brain regions: the nucleus accumbens core, somatosensory cortex, and the dorsomedial, ventromedial, and arcuate hypothalamic nuclei. Our findings present novel insights into the brain cilia dynamics, and highlight the need for further investigation into cilia’s role in the brain’s response to environmental changes and regulation of oscillatory physiological processes.

Cilia in the #brain display region-dependent oscillations of length and orientation @PLOSBiology.org

The human ciliopathy protein RSG1 links the CPLANE complex to transition zone architecture - Nature Communications The CPLANE complex is essential for ciliogenesis, and mutations to all but one subunit have been associated with ciliopathies. Here they identify three familial mutations in the final subunit, RSG1, t...

Cilia Alert! So excited to finally have this paper on the CPLANE complex out in @natcomms.nature.com! We show that RSG1 is a human ciliopathy protein and links CPLANE to the transition zone. 1/n

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Multiciliated Xenopus embryonic epidermis, highlighting its motile cilia, stained for acetylated alpha-tubulin (cilia; magenta), polyglycylated tubulin (cilia; cyan) and phalloidin (actin; green). Image credit: Micaela Lasser. See Research Report by Teerikorpi et al.

Issue 12 is complete!

On the cover: Multiciliated Xenopus embryonic epidermis, highlighting its motile cilia, stained for acetylated alpha-tubulin (cilia; magenta), polyglycylated tubulin (cilia; cyan) and phalloidin (actin; green). See Teerikorpi et al.
journals.biologists.com/dev/article-...

📣 Cilia Lab is growing 📣 - we have 2️⃣ open positions at @uoe-igc.bsky.social @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social for talented and motivated researchers interested in disease modelling & genetic therapies which target #RareRespiratoryDiseases at their root cause. 🧪🧪#ciliopathies #PrimaryCiliaryDyskinesia 1/4

🎉 Congrats to Yanhe, Kangkang, @amirtavakoli.bsky.social, Long & co-authors for revealing the atomic structure of RS3, a Giga-sized complex in motile cilia! A tour de force in #cryoET, #cryoEM, #proteomics & modeling. Out now in Nat Struct Mol Biol! doi.org/10.1038/s415... @CellUtsw

Structure of the ciliary tip central pair reveals the unique role of the microtubule-seam binding protein SPEF1 Motile cilia are unique organelles with the ability to move autonomously. The force generated by beating cilia propels cells and moves fluids. The cil…

Our newest paper is now online in Current Biology. In short, we identified 7 proteins in the tip of the cilia and found SPEF1 is a seam-binding protein and important for cilia stability. Great work from my postdoc Thibault Legal and everyone involved!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Top left: Schematic Representation: (Top Left) Mice were perfused and harvested at two-hour intervals over a 24-h period. The harvested mice were then sectioned coronally. (Bottom Left) Coronal brain sections at different brain levels. (Top Middle) The ciliary base was defined as the origin of the coordinate system, and the tip of the cilia was labeled. Cilia length was measured from the base to the tips, and the circular angle was determined. (Bottom Middle) The brain section of the mice was divided into left and right hemispheres. For cilia found in the right hemisphere, a counter-clockwise coordinate system was used to determine the circular angle (Right). For cilia found in the left hemisphere, a clockwise coordinate system was used (Left). (Top Right) An example of the angle measurement from cilia found in the right hemisphere. Bottom left: Representative images of immunofluorescence staining showing cilia labeled with the ADCY3 antibody (red) and the basal body (cilia base) labeled with the centrin 1 antibody (green). Right: Brain Regions analyzed for cilia length and angle.

Spatiotemporal analysis of >10 million #PrimaryCilia in 22 mouse #brain regions shows that #cilia have region-specific length & orientation patterns. #Circadian rhythms of cilia length suggest a role for cilia in the brain’s response to environmental changes @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4lWnfbQ

Multi-million project to ‘crack the code’ of cilia – tiny structures with big impact on human health An international team of researchers, led by the University of Exeter, have been awarded a Wellcome Discovery Award grant of almost £5 million to investigate one of the body’s most fascinating microsc...

Excited to share that we have received significant funding from the @wellcometrust.bsky.social for a new interdisciplinary consortium project on #cilia coordination and function across scales and organisms! 🎉🥂@lsiexeter.bsky.social

news.exeter.ac.uk/living-syste...

The movement of the cilia on this Bryozoa coronate larva is simply mesmerising! See in comments to see it in slo-mo! 🦑 #plankton

We had a fabulous day of #cilia and #centrosome science today @ukcilianetwork.bsky.social Spring Meeting which brought folks from all over Europe! @micromotility.bsky.social kicked off our #maths #modelling #biophysics session- interface of exciting science! Great turnout… mind buzzing.

Cilia are the tiny machines that keep your lungs clear from pathogens and other bad stuff!

Time to celebrate.. the WASHU PCD Time is excited to see it's rank expand. We wish the expecting moms all the best, and we can't wait to meet the little ones.

The whole group got together for a summer BBQ, and to celebrate Susan's @dutcherlab.bsky.social election to the NAS 🙌
Great food, better company! 🍻