Research Interests

neural crest, cilia, congenital anomalies, craniofacial, mouse

Our lab studies development of the neural crest lineage from induction and migration to differentiation. A recent focus has been on cilia in the neural crest. Patients with ciliopathies frequently have neural crest associated craniofacial anomalies and we model these anomalies using animal models (mouse, frog, chicken) and human induced pluripotent stem cells.

Some key cilia papers:

1. Identification of a novel variant of the ciliopathic gene FUZZY associated with craniosynostosis. Barrell WB, Adel Al-lami H, Goos JAC, Swagemakers SMA, van Dooren M, van der Spek PJ, Mathijssen IMJ and Liu KJ, European Journal of Human Genetics, 2022. doi: 10.1038/s41431-021-00988-6
2. Tabler JM, Barrell WB, Szabo-Rogers HL, Healy C, Yeung Y, Perdiguero EG, Schulz C, Yannakoudakis BZ, Mesbahi A, Wlodarczyk B, Geissmann F, Finnell RH, Wallingford JB, Liu KJ. Fuz mutant mice reveal shared mechanisms between ciliopathies and FGF-related syndromes. Dev Cell. 2013 Jun 24;25(6):623-35.  doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2013.05.021. PubMed PMID: 23806618; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3697100.
3. Yannakoudakis BZ, Liu KJ. Common skeletal features in rare diseases: New links between ciliopathies and FGF-related syndromes. Rare Dis. 2013 Nov 11;1:e27109. doi: 10.4161/rdis.27109. eCollection 2013. PubMed PMID: 25003013; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3932950.