Our lab studies mechanisms that regulate the normal and pathological functions of the nearly ubiquitous organelle, the cilium. This highly conserved cellular antenna, also known as a flagellum, requires coordination of the cell cycle, cytoskeletal dynamics, and intracellular trafficking for structural maintenance and signal transduction. Due to the role of the cilium in essential functions in nearly all human cells, abnormalities result in a wide range of diseases, termed ciliopathies. In fact, ciliary signaling is now understood to play a role in very common diseases such as diabetes and cancer and may provide new avenues for therapeutic intervention for these devastating disorders.

We use methods in molecular biology, cell biology, chemical biology and biochemistry to probe cilium structure and regulation in the unicellular green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, as well as in mammalian models.

Blog

Pro-tips

Encouraging good scholarship

Keeping up with the literature is almost always the first thing to fall by the wayside for all of us when we get busy. Usually this is because there are few overt short-term consequences of letting

Reflections

Celebrating Science!

This morning I had the honor of speaking at the Kansas City March for Science. I was invited by an organizer, one of our fantastic graduate students, Cassi Johnson. It was a blustery day so the conditions

Reflections

White knuckles

With startup funds rapidly dwindling and major external grant funding elusive, this year has been arguably the hardest of my professional career. I don’t say it lightly given that other notable gut punches included switching

Reflections

Avasthi Lab Year in Review-2017

I’ve been thinking about doing a year in review for the lab but it has been difficult to think about. It’s been quite a rough year. Last year, I was very optimistic. We had gotten positive comments

Pro-tips

So you have a cool result.

Maybe you’ve been optimizing an experiment for a while and finally have it working. You do that first solid trial and see a cool effect! Hurray!! Now what? The urge to run and tell your

Reflections

Feeding your scientific soul.

One thing that shocked me when I started my faculty position was the explosion of opportunities. As a grad student and postdoc, I remember clawing for opportunities that seemed all too infrequent. Upon starting my

Pro-tips

Try a writing checklist

Scientific writing doesn’t come naturally to most of us and is a craft that is honed over a lifetime of practice. One thing that can make the process of writing and getting feedback from your

Pro-tips

Developing an idea filter.

I saw this great tweet today from @Holz_lab: When PI proposes an experiment, don’t jump on it right away. High chance they’ll change something upon pondering #protip — Marina Holz (@Holz_lab) It’s so important for