ASCB Washington DC 2019

by Heidi Hehnly in ,


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

Erica Colicino (Hehnly Lab Alum) presenting on cenexin and PLK1

Julie Manikas presenting on Cilia formation in the developing embryo

Julie Manikas presenting on Cilia formation in the developing embryo

Jessica O’Connel presenting on the role of the cytokinesis bridge in Rosette formation.

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.

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.

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

Julia Riley, Erica Colicino, Heidi Hehnly, and Julie Manikas

Heidi and Hui-Fang Hung

Heidi and Hui-Fang Hung

Lab Dinner

Lab Dinner

Ana and Heidi

Ana and Heidi

Heidi and Colleen

Heidi and Colleen

Fun in DC

Fun in DC

Bart and Mike at the Botanical Gardens

Bart and Mike at the Botanical Gardens


Great Job to Alice Garrastegui (class of 2018, SU) and Michael Bates (Class of 2019, SU)!

by Heidi Hehnly in


Alice and Michael did a great job presenting their posters at Syracuse University this past Friday. Alice is a senior who won a Research Award on her work in our lab, and Michael is a junior.  We are super proud of Alice and Michael, and wish Alice all the luck after graduation with her future endeavors!

Top image is the lab! From Left to Right is: Mike, Alice, Heidi, Lindsay, and Erica.  The middle image is Mike with his poster entitled "Genetic instability and preferential segregation of lagging Chromosomes" and Alice with her poster entitled "The role of cell division in de novo tissue morphogenesis in Kupffer's Vesicle".


Congrats to Paul!

by Heidi Hehnly in


Paul Lovell recently presented his poster with Alice Marie Garrastegui, both students from Syracuse University.  Paul is a senior and has been in our lab for the past two years studying the role of supernumerary centrosomes in Breast cancer.  We will miss him, but we are all excited for him to start graduate school at University of Nebraska next fall. Congrats Paul!

Hehnly Lab members from left to right:Lindsey Rathbun, Paul Lovell, Alice Marie Garrastegui, Erica Colicino, Heidi Hehnly 

Hehnly Lab members from left to right:Lindsey Rathbun, Paul Lovell, Alice Marie Garrastegui, Erica Colicino, Heidi Hehnly