The Brueckner Lab

We study the development of left right asymmetry, and the role of cilia in left-right and heart development utilizing mouse models, Xenopus tropicalis and human genetics. Vertebrate left-right asymmetry is essential for development of normal heart structure, and abnormal LR development manifests as severe congenital heart disease in humans.

The major foci of the lab are to identify the genetic program underlying vertebrate left-right development through genomic analysis of patients with disorders of left-right development, to study how the ciliated organizer of asymmetry breaks bilateral symmetry and to analyze the mechanism of cardiac cilia in the direct control of heart morphogenesis.