"I am a hunter, even though I have done some gathering in my time." Sydney Brenner (1927 - 2019) 1) Identification of cargo binding sites on IFT trains How can a complex of just 22 or 23 different polypeptides bind and transport dozens or hundreds of distinct proteins? We are fine-mapping the binding site for ARMC2, the IFT cargo adapter for radial spokes. 2) Regulation of cargo transport by IFT In vivo imaging revealed that the number of cargo molecules present on IFT trains varies greatly. How cells modulate cargo attachment to the trains remains largely unknown. 3) How do cells meassure ciliary length? While it is now widely accepted that cells actively monitor the length of their cilia and several mathematical models of cilia length regulation have been proposed, the actual nature of such a ciliary length sensor remains to be determined. 4) LIFT Dual lipidated proteins such as FAP12 and PLD accumulate to extremely high levels in the ciliary membrane. The driving force for this accumulation in the ciliary vs. the cell body membrane remains unknown. 5) How do cells know whether they possess cilia or not? When cilia are amputated ~2,000 genes encoding ciliary proteins are upregulated within a few minutes. Expression levels return to normal when the regrowing cilia approach full length. How the cells recognize the presence, absence or ;length of their cilia and how this information is transmitted to the cell nucleus is essentially unknown. see also list of publication list and the research introduction and summary on the faculty page
