The Nachury Lab is part of the department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Our lab is interested in using a combination of interdisciplinary approaches encompassing protein biochemistry, cell biology, in vitro assays, digital microscopy and mammalian cell engineering to study the molecular etiology of complex hereditary human diseases.
A major focus of the lab is the study of the primary cilium, a once-obscure cellular organelle that has been "re-discovered" for its role in a number of signaling pathways (Hedgehog, Planar Cell Polarity, PDGF,..). Most fascinatingly, defects in cilium biogenesis lead to a variety of symptoms such as retinal degeneration, kidney cysts, obesity, polydactyly, randomization of left-right asymmetry, etc.