Check out our new Preprint!

by Heidi Hehnly in ,


The Hehnly Lab’s 1st preprint, led by Lindsay Rathbun with the help of many people including our graduate student Abrar Aljiboury and postbac Julie Manikas, along with Josh Bembenek’s laboratory (University of Michigan with X Bai from the NIH) and Jeff Amack’s laboratory (UPSTATE Medical School, Syracuse NY). We found some crazy large centrosomes in extremely large zebrafish embryo cells that scale with changes in cell size! We didn’t leave out C. elegans either. Check it out here:

PLK1- and PLK4-Mediated asymmetric mitotic centrosome size and positioning in the early zebrafish embryo.

Also check out a zebrafish embryo dividing cells! Microtubules (EMTB-GFP) on left and centrosomes (centrin-GFP) on right.

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Cytokinetic bridge triggers de novo lumen formation in vivo.

by Heidi Hehnly in


Our paper is out! This study was lead by Lindsay Rathbun with many major contributions from past and current lab members and our collaborators Lisa Manning (SU) and Jeffrey Amack (SUNY Upstate). Its a really cool study demonstrating that the final step in cell division, cytokinesis and abscission, is needed for the lumen to form in the zebrafish left-right organizer. This transient tissue goes from a series of mesenchymal like migratory cells that divide and transition into polarized epithelial cells. Our team proposes a model that division assists in this process and the cytokinetic bridge, which can stay around for up to an hour, helps hold the cells in a transient rosette structure before they can initiate lumen formation. Check the paper out here at Nature Communications.

In cyan is a dividing cell interconnected by a cytokinetic bridge that is about to undergo abscission.  Once the bridge abscises you can see the KV lumen open up! Magenta is labeling KV cells plasma membrane.

In cyan is a dividing cell interconnected by a cytokinetic bridge that is about to undergo abscission. Once the bridge abscises you can see the KV lumen open up! Magenta is labeling KV cells plasma membrane.


Check out the Hehnly Lab's Newest Paper in Molecular Biology of the Cell! And, we got the cover!!!

by Heidi Hehnly in


Our studied title “ Chromosome misalignment is associated with PLK! activity at cenexin-positive mitotic centrosomes” is now officially published. Check it out here. This project was led by the Hehnly lab’s graduate student Erica Colicino who now is at University of Michigan doing her postdoctoral work with Puck Ohi’s lab. Erin Curtis a postbac scholar in the Hehnly lab and now a graduate student at Duke designed the cover that was selected and made major contributions to the study.

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Michelle Nunez-Garcia giving a great lecture on the benefits between Widefield microscopy and Laser Scanning Confocal

by Heidi Hehnly in , ,


Michelle, an undergraduate in our lab, gave a great lecture this past week on the pluses and minuses of widefield and laser scanning confocal microscopy in our graduate level course at SU on Microscopy Techniques in Cell Biology. She presented one of my favorite papers by Jason Swedlow that really digs into the advantages of widefield imaging with deconvolution for resolving dim fluorescent structures in live samples. The paper was titled “Measuring tubulin content in Toxoplasma gondii: A comparison of laser-scanning confocal and wide-field fluorescence microscopy” and can be found here.

Michelle presenting on Widefield Microscopy with deconvolution using the model organism Toxoplasma Gondii.

Michelle presenting on Widefield Microscopy with deconvolution using the model organism Toxoplasma Gondii.