The Department of Biology and Hehnly Lab were delighted to host Dr. Dorothy Lerit from Emory University for a seminar on October 24, 2025. Dr. Lerit, an expert in centrosome and RNA biology, presented her talk titled “The RNA-binding protein Orb2 regulates brain growth in Drosophila.”
Visiting UC Davis!
I had a great time visiting Li-En Jao’s Lab at UC Davis last week, and it was my first time seeing the campus. Thanks for having me! It was hard leaving the beautiful sky and sun!.
Sun rise on the way to the airport.
Our study on zebrafish embryo centrosomes is online!
Our new study at Current Biology is online! Lindsay Rathbun and Abrar Aljiboury identified that in the zebrafish embryo mitotic centrosomes scale with cell size and are asymmetric in size! We had a great collaboration with the Bembenek Lab at Univ of Michigan along with his student Bai to also examine that this phenomenon is consistent in C. elegans. We had additional great contributions from undergrads to postbacs Nicole Hall and Julie Manikas. Finally we wouldn’t have been able to do any of it if the Amack Lab at SUNY Upstate didn’t introduce us to zebrafish and how awesome they are!
Check out the sweet video of zebrafish embryonic centrosomes:
Microtubules (EMTB-3xGFP) and centrosomes (Centrin-GFP)
You can check out the study here: Link to PDF.
ASCB Washington DC 2019
Lindsay Rathbun (graduate student), Jessica O’Connell (graduate student), Nikhila Krishnan (graduate student), and Julie Manikas (postbac) all did a great job mixing with scientists and presenting their work at ASCB! Julie Manikas gave a talk to a packed room on cilia formation in the developing zebrafish embryo and the rest of the lab gave poster presentations on centrosome signaling, membrane trafficking, forces required to create a tissue, and cell division during embryogenesis. I even had a guest presenter to present my poster on PLK1 activity at the centrosome, Hehnly Lab Alumni Erica Colicino!
Erica Colicino (Hehnly Lab Alum) presenting on cenexin and PLK1
Julie Manikas presenting on Cilia formation in the developing embryo
Jessica O’Connel presenting on the role of the cytokinesis bridge in Rosette formation.
Lindsay Rathbun presenting her work on the role of the Cytokinetic bridge in lumen formation.
Nikhila presenting on the role of endosomes and the centrosome during cell division.
We also enjoyed a great dinner with collaborators and old friends! It was awesome to hang out with Julia Riley from the Castaneda lab, Hui-Fang Hung and Ana Vertii, old friends from the Doxsey Lab, and Colleen McDowell (Wisconsin).
Julia Riley, Erica Colicino, Heidi Hehnly, and Julie Manikas
Heidi and Hui-Fang Hung
Lab Dinner
Ana and Heidi
Heidi and Colleen
Fun in DC
Bart and Mike at the Botanical Gardens