The Laboratory of Molecular Machines and Tissue Architecture, led by Dr. Nasser M. Rusan, studies the role of centrosomes during animal development. Centrosomes, non-membrane bound organelles, serve as the cell’s main microtubule (MT) organizing center (MTOC). The lab's efforts are focused on an outstanding question in the field – how does the centrosome tune its MTOC activity to support different functions? They use a combination of genetics, molecular biology, CRISPR gene editing, super-resolution microscopy, and other cell biological approaches. Most importantly, they employ the model organism Drosophila in combination with a powerful method of generating new alleles to investigate tissue specific functions. This approach has uniquely positioned the lab to discover unappreciated roles for centrosome proteins and is guiding their current research aimed to explore the etiology of centrosome- and cilia-related human diseases, such as microcephaly and infertility.