Susan Dutcher
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Genetics
Cilia are hair-like structures on cells. Some beat to move fluid or cells, and some sense signals.
- Fields
Genetics
Biology
Biochemistry
- Topics
cilia
basal bodies
centrioles
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2030
What they work on
- Determine how microtubule inner proteins (MIPs) inside ciliary doublet microtubules produce the symmetric beating used by sperm and nodal cilia, and test whether they act through outer dynein arms and tektin. Genetic, biochemical, proteomic and imaging approaches will be used.
- Test whether SAXO proteins, a class of MIPs with an Mn-motif, help keep cilia stable.
- Identify proteins that interact with epsilon-tubulin using suppressors of a missense mutant, and map how basal body triplet microtubules are assembled with 4x expansion microscopy.
- Define the role of taurine-modified α-tubulin in cilia and basal bodies, and how it interacts with other tubulin modifications, using genetics and expansion microscopy.
More about the research
Each cilium is built from a base called the basal body. When cilia or basal bodies fail, the results include ciliopathies, diseases affecting the brain, eyes, kidneys and weight, as well as infertility, misplaced organs and cancer. The lab's long-term goal is to understand which mechanisms go wrong in these diseases.
Why it matters
Defects in cilia and basal bodies cause ciliopathies affecting the brain, eyes and kidneys, along with infertility, organ-placement defects, respiratory illness and cancer. By identifying the proteins and modifications that build and power cilia, this work could reveal disease mechanisms. It may also clarify how gene variants found in patients with infertility or laterality defects cause disease.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Helen Willsey
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Neuroscience·Early-career
Determine how SYNGAP1 gene dosage affects cilia formation and Hedgehog signaling in human neural progenitor cells before synapses form, and how this changes their proliferation and differentiation.
Jessica Lynn Feldman
Stanford University, CA·Biology
Build proximity maps of non-centrosomal microtubule organizing centers across C. elegans cell types, using the proteins VAB-10B and WDR-62 as handles, to learn how these sites first arise during differentiation.
Francesca Bartolini
Columbia University, NY·Neuroscience
Test whether unrelated CIPN-causing chemotherapy drugs share a mechanism of altering tubulin post-translational modifications early, before neuropathy symptoms appear, using cellular and preclinical models.
The school
Washington University in St Louis: 97 labs on PI Pages, $1.2B a year on research, 365 research doctorates a year.
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