Karl Lechtreck
Project title: Cilia and ciliopathies
Project Description:
Cilia and eukaryotic flagella are microtubule-based cell protrusions with motile and sensory functions. Cilia dysfunction leads to a plethora of diseases and developmental disorders including blindness, male infertility, kidney anomalies, and obesity This has kindled an interest into how cilia are assembled and maintained and how signals are transmitted from cilia to the cell body. Because cilia lack ribosomes, their building blocks need to be imported from the cell body. In our lab, we study intraflagellar transport (IFT), a motor-based protein shuttle dedicated to ciliary assembly. We use a combination of genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry and in vivo imaging to study the IFT pathway and ciliary protein transport. We focus on proteins related to human diseases and use the simple unicellular species Chlamydomonas to study their role in protein transport at the molecular level. Current projects aim to elucidate how IFT interacts with its cargoes, how the amount of ciliary building blocks carried by IFT is regulated, and whether cilia are mechano-sensitive organelles.
Skills and techniques learned will include:
Molecular cloning
SDS-PAGE and Western blotting
Live cell microscopy (TIRF, high speed)
Immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry
Data analysis and presentation
Hyperlinks:
Faculty page
http://cellbio.uga.edu/directory/faculty/karl-f-lechtreck
Lab page