Recent Lab News
March, 2026
Huge congratulations to Lauren on her acceptance to McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston! 🎉 Lauren spent her gap year (2024–2025) in our lab after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin. During that time, she made remarkable contributions. In addition to conducting experiments, she brought forward creative ideas and played an important role in preparing our grant application. Lauren published two peer-reviewed articles below and made a significant contribution as second author to our book chapter (Springer Nature, 2026 in press). We are incredibly proud of all that you have accomplished, Lauren, and we can’t wait to see what you achieve next!
Enhanced BMP signaling via ALK2 in osteoclasts decreases bone density in mice.
And the celebrations continue—her sister, Brittain (left in the picture), will also be attending UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry. Congratulations to both of you!
January, 2026
Congratulations to the lab for being funded by the McGovern Medical School Just-Missed Grant to study the function of ciliary protein in craniofacial development. 🎉
June, 2025
Congratulations to the lab for being funded by the McGovern Medical School Pilot Grant to study the function of ciliary protein in age-related bone loss. 🎉
May, 2025
Congratulations to Maryam (Rice University sophomore) for the best poster award (among the graduate student categories!) in the Lawrence Family Bone Disease Program of Texas. 🎉 Dr. Aris Economides was the keynote speaker!
April, 2025
Congratulations to Hiro for being funded by the Department of Pediatrics Seed Grant to study the function of ciliary protein in craniofacial formation. 🎉 https://med.uth.edu/pediatrics/2025/07/30/research-pilot-grant-awards/
March, 2025
Our review article entitled “The primary cilia: Orchestrating cranial neural crest development” was published in Differentiation.
Huge congratulations to Sowmya on her acceptance to the UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry! 🎉 Sowmya joined us as a summer research student when she was a sophomore at the University of Texas at Austin. At that time, she came to the lab every day to conduct experiments and studied for the DAT at night. Her hard work has certainly paid off, resulting in the publication of three peer-reviewed papers in Biochem Biophys Res Commun in 2023 and 2024. Sowmya received offers from several dental schools, including the New York University College of Dentistry. Sowmya will become a great dentist and a craniofacial research scientist!
Disruption of distal appendage protein CEP164 causes skeletal malformation in mice.
Enhanced BMP signaling in Cathepsin K-positive tendon progenitors induces heterotopic ossification.
Enhanced BMP signaling leads to enlarged nasal cartilage formation in mice.
September, 2024
Congratulations to Yolanda for the best poster award for the research symposium at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine! 🎉 She published this work as a co-first author.
Enhanced BMP signaling via ALK2 in osteoclasts decreases bone density in mice.
June, 2024
We are pleased to welcome Ms. Yolanda Gutierrez (MS1, summer research student) from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine!
May, 2024
Yoshi gave a talk at the Craniofacial GRC in Spain in the session “Molecular Etiology of Craniofacial Ciliopathies.”
May, 2024
Margaret’s family celebrates her graduation from Rice University! 🎉 Margaret has earned her numerous accolades, including the Rice University Distinction in Research and Creative Works Award, the Rice 360 Innovation Award, the Johns Hopkins Healthcare Design Competition Award, and the prestigious Wagoner Foreign Study Scholarship. Her research in the lab has been published in three peer-reviewed journals.
Disruption of distal appendage protein CEP164 causes skeletal malformation in mice.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2024
February, 2024
We are pleased to welcome Ms. Maryam Faisal, a Rice University Freshman!
January, 2024
Congratulations to Margaret for being awarded the Wagoner Foreign Study Scholarship! 🎉 Margaret will go to Dr. Karen Liu’s lab at King’s College London to study the mystery of cranial neural crest cells.
October, 2023
Hiro and Margaret’s (undergraduate student at Rice University) paper entitled “Enhanced BMP signaling in Cathepsin K-positive tendon progenitors induces heterotopic ossification” was published in Biochem Biophys Res Commun.
Hiro and Sowmya’s (undergraduate student at the University of Texas at Austin) paper entitled “Enhanced BMP signaling leads to enlarged nasal cartilage formation in mice” was published in Biochem Biophys Res Commun.
November, 2022
We presented our research on heterotopic ossification at the International Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva Association (iFOPa) Meeting. It was a great honor to meet Dr. Frederick Kaplan, a pioneer and global leader in advancing research toward effective treatments and a cure for FOP.
Our collaborative work with Dr. Jun Wang at the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston to study the role of Yap/Taz signaling during craniofacial cartilage development was published in Science Signaling.
September, 2022
Hiro and Margaret’s (undergraduate student at Rice University) paper entitled “Enhanced BMP signaling through ALK2 attenuates keratinocyte differentiation” was published in Biochem Biophys Res Commun.
August, 2022
Congratulations to Hiro for being a finalist for the 2022 President’s Excellence in Postdoctoral Research Award! 🎉
May, 2022
Congratulations to Hiro for receiving the Bone Disease Program of Texas Rolanette and Berdon Lawrence Research Award! 🎉
January, 2022
Hiro’s paper entitled “Disruption of Trip11 in cranial neural crest cells is associated with increased ER and Golgi stress contributing to skull defects in mice” was published in Dev Dyn.
December, 2021
Hiro’s paper entitled “Temporospatial regulation of intraflagellar transport is required for the endochondral ossification in mice” was published in Developmental Biology.
November, 2021
We are pleased to welcome Ms. Margaret Li, a Rice University sophomore!
July, 2021
Hiro’s paper entitled “The molecular complex of ciliary and golgin protein is crucial for skull development” was published in Development.
March, 2021
Congratulations to the lab for being funded by the McGovern Medical School Pilot Grant to study the function of ciliary protein in ectopic bone formation. 🎉
March, 2021
Hiro’s paper entitled “Alteration of DNA Damage Response Causes Cleft Palate” was published in Frontiers in Physiology.
February, 2021
Congratulations to the lab for being funded by the Department of Pediatrics Seed Grant to study the function of ciliary protein in craniofacial formation. 🎉
January, 2021
Our collaborative work with Dr. Yuji Mishina at the University of Michigan to study the role of BMP signaling during craniofacial cartilage development was published in Science Signaling.
January, 2020
Congratulations to Hiro for being awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Uehara Memorial Foundation! 🎉
May, 2018
Kohei’s work with Dr. Bin Wang at MD Anderson Cancer Center to understand the role of DDR machinery during craniofacial bone development was published in PLoS Genetics. Our article has been recommended by the Faculty of 1000.
April, 2017
Masaru’s review paper entitled “Functional diversity of ciliary proteins in bone development and disease” was published in Curr Osteoporos Rep.
September, 2016
Yoshi and Yuji’s insight paper entitled “An epistatic explanation” was published in eLife.
July, 2016
Kazuo’s paper entitled “Constitutively active mutation of ACVR1 in oral epithelium causes submucous cleft palate in mice” was published in Developmental Biology.
May, 2016
Kazuo and Megumi’s paper entitled “Canonical and noncanonical intraflagellar transport regulates craniofacial skeletal development” was published in Proc Natl Acad Sci USA.
November, 2015
Nobby and Jingling’s paper entitled “SHP2-deficiency in chondrocytes deforms orofacial cartilage and ciliogenesis in mice” was published in J Bone Miner Res.
April, 2014
Congratulations to Jingling for being an awardee of the Heilongjiang Province Fellowship! 🎉
January, 2014
We are pleased to welcome Ms. Danielle Little as a GSBS lab rotation student!
October, 2013
Congratulations to Kazuo for being awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Uehara Memorial Foundation! 🎉