Subcellular drug targeting illuminates local kinase action

by Heidi Hehnly in


Paula Bucko, a graduate student in John Scott (Pharmacology, UW), recently published an exciting study titled “Subcellular drug targeting illuminates local kinase action.” We (primarily Lindsay Rathbun, Hehnly lab graduate student and myself) were super excited to help Paula and John out with doing the zebrafish/in vivo studies featured in the paper that shows a novel chemical genetic approach to spatially and temporally inhibit the mitotic kinase PLK1.

You can read the study here and a cool digest here.

zebrafish expressing the SNAP-PACT (magenta) for centrosomal targetted PLK1 inhibition during zebrafish embryonic development.

zebrafish expressing the SNAP-PACT (magenta) for centrosomal targetted PLK1 inhibition during zebrafish embryonic development.


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


The fish room is almost ready!

by Heidi Hehnly in


The Hehnly lab has been expanding their repertoire from 2D and 3D mammalian tissue culture to also include zebrafish as a model. We started with the help of Jeff Amack’s lab at SUNY Upstate, but now have invested in our very own zebrafish facility with the help of Aquaneering and Syracuse University. Stay tuned for two fun studies in the works where we do cell biology in the zebrafish embryo.

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