The Barr Lab

Department of Genetics

Current Research

The Barr laboratory is interested in two seemingly unrelated questions in biology: the generation of sexual behaviors and the molecular basis of human genetic diseases of cilia. In particular, we study male mating behavior and ciliary specialization in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. We use several approaches to study animal physiology and behavior, including dissection of […]

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Lab News

Congratulations to Kaiden Power who defended his thesis in December! He will do a postdoc studying glia in Max Heiman's lab at Boston Children's/Harvard Genetics.

Barr lab has been busy! Inna Nikonorova's epic EV profiling paper was published in Current Biology. Jonathon Walsh received a PKD Foundation postdoctoral fellowship; Kade Power was awarded an NIH F31 predoctoral fellowship. Inna and Jonathon gave talks at the…

The Barr lab has been making lemonade out of lemons this past pandemic year. In March 2020, we quickly locked down thanks to our super lab manager Gloria Androwski and the dauer worms. During work from home, we focused on…

Welcome to postdoc Dr. Inna Nikonorova who joined us in July 2019. Inna is isolating and profiling ciliary extracellular vesicles. To learn more about Inna, read this profile piece in JBC http://www.jbc.org/content/294/38/13864/suppl/DCAuthor_profile Dr. Jonathon Walsh is an NIH-IRACDA postdoctoral fellow who…

Barr lab is looking for new postdocs who are brilliant, motivated, and fearless at the bench! We landed a new NIH grant on Nephronophthisis-related ciliopathies and ciliary compartmentalization. Juan Wang received a grant from the NIH-funded Kansas PKD Center. Bob…

The Barr lab welcomes new graduate student Kumar Tiger!! Malan Silva spectacularly defended his Ph.D. dissertation. Congratulations Dr. Silva Malan Silva’s paper was published in Current Biology. In collaboration with Hall (AECOM) and Rongo (Rutgers) laboratory, Malan discovered that a cell-specific…

Juan Wang will present a talk on “Social Extracellular Vesicles” at the International C. elegans Conference at UCLA.  Bon voyage to Malan Silva, who is heading off to his postdoc in  the Jorgensen lab at Utah!

We are obsessed about ciliary extracellular vesicles! Juan and Maureen wrote a review on Ciliary Extracellular Vesicles: Txt Msg Organelles. See also Juan’s paper on defining the molecular signature of extracellular vesicle releasing neurons in Current Biology. This work was initiated during…

We have two new doctors in the house: Simon Warburton-Pitt and Julie Maguire!  Simon’s most recent work was published in PLOS Genetics and Dr. SWP is now a postdoc in Bristol, UK. Congratulations to Deanna DeVore and Malan Silva for their predoctoral fellowship awards.  Deanna landed an NIH predoctoral fellowship for…

We renewed our NIH grant on Polycystins, Cilia, and Extracellular Vesicles in C. elegans. Five more years of discoveries to come! Dr. Bob O'Hagan is the Principal Investigator of a new three year Independent Research Grant from the New Jersey Commission…