Assistant Professor

Biochemistry & Biophysics

Cardiovascular Research Institute

University of California, San Francisco (San Francisco, CA)

I am interested in how vertebrate cells communicate with each other during development, and how this communication goes awry in disease, with a current focus on the functions of primary cilia in these processes.

Our work suggests that cilia also function as critical mediators of intercellular signals during development. One crucial role is in the coordination of the Hedgehog signal transduction pathway. Hedgehog signals are essential regulators of embryonic patterning and cell proliferation, and defects in Hedgehog signaling are important causes of both birth defects and many cancers. We are currently extending this work by asking a few fundamental questions about primary cilia:

-Do cilia transduce intercellular signals other than Hedgehog?
-How do cilia interpret signals essential to vertebrate development?
-Do cilia participate in Hedgehog-mediated oncogenesis?
-How do cells regulate whether they form a cilium?

This work has begun to suggest that the primary cilium is an organelle dedicated to signal transduction, somewhat analogous to a cellular antenna. We hope that our current endeavors will reveal how this antenna interprets the signals required for normal development and homeostasis, and how malfunctions in the antenna contribute to cancer and other important human diseases.