Welcome

This website is intended to serve as a resource for researchers interested in cilia, the evolutionarily ancient eukaryotic organelles found on the surfaces of most unicellular organisms and a large proportion of cells and tissues in animals. The two classes of cilia, motile and non-motile, collectively perform a wide variety of functions broadly encompassing cell/fluid movement and sensory perception. Despite the numerous research papers and review articles available on cilia, there is still much to be learned about the physiological functions and inner workings of both types of cilia in health and disease.


Cilia proteomes

Cilia are highly complex, bona fide organelles that are separated from the main cell body and boast hundreds of different proteins. They have a microtubule-based motility system termed intraflagellar transport and possess a variety of receptors, signaling molecules, etc. to support their varied functions. Recent bioinformatic, genomic and proteomic studies have now helped to reveal the nature of the ciliary proteome, or ciliome. These studies help to set the stage for characterising all of the components required for cilia function. We have recently reviewed these different experimental approaches in a Trends Genetics publication and compiled a ciliary proteome database. The original research publications are compiled in the papers section of this website.


Ciliopathies

Cilia are implicated in numerous disorders that are collectively termed ciliopathies. There are numerous review articles that highlight the implications of cilia in numerous disorders, including Bardet-Biedl Syndrome (BBS) and Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD).


Cilia Journal

Research on cilia is growing rapidly, and there is now a journal dedicated to disseminating research articles and reviews on cilia-related content. Take a look: Cilia.



About this web site

This web site is very much a work in progress. I encourage everyone who visits it to make comments on the site and suggest ways to improve it, for example by adding a new section, information, references, links, etc.