iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alan Brown @alanbrownhms.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Led by Haixia Zhou and Lea Terbeck, and only possible through international collaboration with the Omran, Hawkins, and @centriolelab.bsky.social labs. We thank our funding agencies, everyone who helped with this project, and the families who took part.

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Alan Brown @alanbrownhms.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

TEM, SEM, and high-speed videos showed that when either protein is lost, TZ architecture collapses, cilia develop swollen tips, and mucus transport stops. Deleting ECT2L in stem-cell-derived airway cells did the same. We think this is the first demonstration that TZ defects can cause PCD.

Schematic showing that the loss of linker proteins can impede mucus clearance

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Alan Brown @alanbrownhms.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Reasoning that these linkers might matter for respiratory health, we teamed up with Heymut Omran's lab to screen 489 people with suspected primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) – an inherited respiratory disease – and found four families with variants in ECT2L or DZANK1

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Alan Brown @alanbrownhms.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Focusing on TZ doublet microtubules, our subtomogram averages showed that neighboring doublets are bridged by an unexpected set of proteins: ECT2L, DZANK1, SKP1, and DYNLL1/2

Atomic model of two neighboring transition zone doublet microtubules

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Alan Brown @alanbrownhms.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I'm incredibly proud of Sven as he leaves the lab to start his own independent research program at Weill Cornell Medicine. He'll be a fantastic #newPI, mentor, and colleague.

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Reposted by Alan Brown

EuroCilia2027 @eurocilia.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

📣 Abstract submission and early registration are now OPEN for the 7th European Cilia Conference—an official EMBO workshop! 📅 8–12 March 2027 📍 Stresa, Italy Submit and register: meetings.embo.org/event/27-cilia www.eurocilia.eu #EMBOCilia #Cilia2027

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Alan Brown @alanbrownhms.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

One, perhaps two, of our postdocs are moving on to faculty positions this year (more news soon!). While they're truly irreplaceable, it does mean that we have openings for new members to join our team studying #cilia. If interested, please apply: academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/15526

Advert for postdoctoral positions at Harvard Medical School studying cilia

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Alan Brown @alanbrownhms.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Congratulations! Exciting news!

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Alan Brown @alanbrownhms.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Our lab is seeking a Postdoctoral Fellow. The position is intentionally broad, as we are looking for outstanding researchers from diverse scientific backgrounds to advance our understanding of cilia and ciliopathies: academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/15526

academicpositions.harvard.edu

HMS - Postdoctoral Fellow in BCMP, Brown Lab

We invite applicants for a postdoctoral fellow position in the Brown lab at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. The Brown lab uses structural, biophysical, and biochemical approaches to d...

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Alan Brown @alanbrownhms.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Delighted to have contributed to this paper and amazing resource. In-silico protein-protein interaction screening has huge promise for generating novel hypotheses and building models into low-res #cryo-EM and #teamtomo maps.

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Alan Brown @alanbrownhms.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Our latest collaborative effort - with Eva Gluenz and @zephyris-science.bsky.social - to understand how the various proteins and complexes of the axoneme contribute to ciliary motility:

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Reposted by Alan Brown

Richard Wheeler @zephyris-science.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Very excited to share this one! Our comprehensive structure, genetics and biophysics dissection of which flagellar dyneins and other proteins are needed for flagella to beat and drive cells swimming behaviours: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Alan Brown @alanbrownhms.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Watching Sven elucidate this mechanism from an unbiased screen onwards has been one of my favorite experiences as a PI. In these challenging times for science at Harvard, it reminds me of the sheer joy of doing science and making discoveries.

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Reposted by Alan Brown

Paul & Virginie - Centriole Lab @centriolelab.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Mark your calendars! The CSHA Cilia & Centrosomes meeting returns this November 2025, can’t wait for what’s sure to be an exceptional gathering of the community.

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Alan Brown @alanbrownhms.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Hi Max, we hope to get the preprint submitted in the next few days. I'm sure Sven will post it when it's available.

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Alan Brown @alanbrownhms.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Unfortunately, we can't offer a hybrid option. Our agreement with the venue is for an in-person meeting only.

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Reposted by Alan Brown

U-M Life Sciences Institute @umlifesciences.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

*Deadline extended* Applications for this year's #CryoEM Data Processing Workshop are due March 27! Don't miss this chance to learn about various approaches to deal with conformational/compositional heterogeneity. myumi.ch/lsi-cryo-2025 @jbquerido.bsky.social @shyamalm.bsky.social

Text overlaying a grid of cryo-EM images of heterogeneous samples. Text: Cryo-EM Summer Workshop, June 1-5, 2025.

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Alan Brown @alanbrownhms.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

The insides of microtubules of motile cilia and flagella are coated in proteins - but are they all important for motility? Our latest collaborative study addresses this question using trypanosomatids as model organisms. Matt explains more below:

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Alan Brown @alanbrownhms.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

A reminder that the Brown lab has an opening for a postdoc fellow: brown.hms.harvard.edu/jobs/242. This might suit someone from the #cilia community interested in learning structural biology. Deadline extended to the 10th Jan.

brown.hms.harvard.edu

Postdoctoral fellow | Brown Lab

The Brown lab at Harvard Medical School is seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral fellow to join our team.

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Alan Brown @alanbrownhms.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

This was a great collaboration and culmination of a huge amount of work including our first attempt to join #teamtomo. @ruizhangmt.bsky.social expertly summarizes the highlights below:

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Reposted by Alan Brown

Benjamin Friedrich @friedrich-group.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Deadline alert: "Biophysics of Motile Cilia": Apply before Dec 1st for consideration for contributed talks! Topics: #axoneme mechanics, #synchronization, #navigation, #ciliopathies, ... Meet us in Bad Honnef, Germany, 30.03.-02.04.2025 we-heraeus-stiftung.de/veranstaltun... Please re-sky!

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