Our Question: How are complex cytoskeletal assemblies built? We study microtubules, actin, and how the two work together. Check out what we’ve been up to!

Our Organism: Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (part plant, part animal)

Our Motivation: We use green algae as powerful tool to discover new biology shared with human cells to improve human disease, but also as a window into the diversity of cytoskeletal properties, structures, and functions. We do basic science research not just for all the reasons we can imagine, but for all the reasons we can’t. 

Blog

Reflections

Career Development Week 2020 (v5.0)

For five years now, we have been spending one week per year in the lab focusing on career development activities that normally tend to get cast aside in favor of research. This year, we experienced

Pro-tips

Peer mentorship and bottom-up advocacy

At the American Society for Cell Biology annual meeting this year, #CellBio2020, I organized a session with three visionary friends, Jessica Polka, Joel Boerckel, and Casey Greene on “Reimagining Publishing, Networking, and Mentoring.” It was

Reflections

Finding your unique path in science

The below is a reprint of my award essay for the ASCB WICB Junior Award for Excellence in Research published originally in MBoC: Avasthi P. Finding your unique path in science. Mol Biol Cell. 2020

News

Avasthi Lab at ASCB|EMBO 2019

Most of our lab is headed to the American Society for Cell Biology annual meeting in DC in a few weeks! Below is a rundown of where you can find us. Please do come by

Reflections

Career Development Week v4.0

This week, we ran our annual career development week in which I encourage the lab to participate in activities that fill gaps in their career development, explore career options, and find new strategies to help

Pro-tips

Love letter to iBiology

I recently participated in a fantastic iBiology course called “Let’s Experiment : A Guide for Scientists Working at the Bench.” My involvement partly included a discussion about an experimental decision tree I made to help

Reflections

Staying vigilant

Recently the NIH changed its language on the Scientific Premise portion of their grant proposals and required that Rigor of the Prior Research now be explicitly be addressed in the Significance and Approach section. This

Lab Ideas

Career Development Week 2018

It’s that time of year again when the lab takes a week to focus on career development. We all have the tendency to prioritize these activities below research and upcoming deadlines but, given their importance,