This December, members of the Hehnly Lab traveled to Philadelphia to present their work at the 2025 American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) Annual Meeting.
Yan Wu presented her poster, “Mitotically driven cytoskeletal reorganization governs zebrafish left–right organizer detachment from the EVL and lumen morphogenesis.” This work highlights how dynamic mitotic events shape tissue architecture during early embryogenesis and reflects a major collaborative effort within the lab. In addition to Yan’s leadership on the project, Yiling Lan and summer undergraduate Miriam Athena Allred made substantial experimental and conceptual contributions, with additional contributions from Carys Timpson during her summer research period.
Yiling Lan also presented his work, “Developmental stage–specific centrosome remodeling by cenexin–pericentrin in vertebrate embryogenesis,” which explores how centrosome composition and organization are developmentally regulated to support morphogenesis. While at ASCB, Yiling had the opportunity to reconnect with former lab member Erin Curtis, now completing her PhD jointly at MIT and Duke— a reminder of the extended scientific community that grows from shared training experiences.
We were also excited to have Albert Adhya attend ASCB as he begins his journey in the lab. For Albert, the meeting served as an immersive introduction to the broader cell biology community and an opportunity to see firsthand how scientific ideas are communicated and refined. The group capped off the meeting with a celebratory dinner at Morimoto—an excellent way to mark a successful and energizing conference.
The Hehnly Lab wants to extend our congratulations to Yiling Lan (Ph.D. candidate) and Yan Wu (Postdoctoral Researcher) for their excellent presentations at the BioInspired Institute Symposium last Friday.
Both presented posters showcasing their ongoing work in developmental cell biology.
Yiling also gave an oral presentation in the Development and Disease focus group, highlighting emerging evidence on how the centrosome—particularly the potential interaction between Cenexin and Pericentrin—contributes to early embryogenesis.
Yan presented her progress on the role of cell division in Kupffer’s Vesicle (KV) morphogenesis, with a focus on how the KV disengages from the enveloping layer (EVL).
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.”
We are thrilled to celebrate Favour Ononiwu’s successful defense of her Ph.D. dissertation last Friday. Favour joined our program during the challenging days of the COVID-19 pandemic and has overcome many hurdles on her way to this milestone. Her perseverance, creativity, and scientific rigor have left a mark on our lab and on the field of developmental cell biology.
She talked about her recent work titled “Functionally Essential and Structurally Diverse: Insights into the Zebrafish Left-Right Organizer’s Cilia via Optogenetic IFT88 Perturbation and Array Tomography”that sheds new light on how cilia contribute to the development of the zebrafish Left-Right Organizer (LRO), known as the Kupffer’s Vesicle (KV).
We are excited to see where her career takes her next, knowing she will continue to advance science with creativity and determination.
Congratulations, Dr. Ononiwu! 🎉
