Nevin is from India. He completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s education from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune, where he was pursuing an Integrated BS-MS dual degree program in Biological Sciences. During his Master’s thesis, he got the chance to work on a year-long research project in a structural Biology lab in studying Bacterial Restriction enzymes. His work in this project got him interested in the field of Protein Structure and motivated him be part of the SCilS program to work on the structure and function of the Intraflagellar transport proteins that are necessary for cilium formation and function. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Dr Esben Lorentzen’s lab at the Molecular Biology and Genetics department at Aarhus University, Denmark.

Abstract
The formation and maintenance of cilia is dependent on an intracellular transport system (Intraflagellar Transport or IFT), mediated by 22 IFT subunits and the molecular motors Kinesin and Dynein. IFT172 is an IFT complex subunit and recent clinical studies have identified several human ciliopathy patients with mutations in the IFT172 subunit. This research project will be aimed at investigating the function of the IFT172 subunit in cilia so as to arrive at a molecular basis for these ciliopathies. X-ray crystallography will be utilized to investigate the structure of independent functional domains of the subunit. Utilising the insights obtained from the structure, various in vitro biochemical assays and in vivo assays in ciliated human cell lines will be designed to characterize the potential function of the IFT172 subunit. Furthermore, the activity and structure of IFT172 variants carrying patient mutations will be investigated to determine how these mutations affect IFT172 function in cilia and lead to ciliopathies.