SCiLS

Primary cilia are microtubule-based projections from the cell surface of nearly every cell in our body. In the last two decades it has become clear that primary cilia have evolved to be key signalling hubs of the cells, as they concentrate or segregate components of major cellular signalling pathways. Dysfunctional cilia can lead to over 35 severe human genetic traits (ciliopathies) with highly heterogeneous, overlapping phenotypes, affecting as many as 1 in 400 people. We now know that humans critically depend on cilia to see, hear, smell, breathe, excrete and reproduce. Such activities require a high degree of regulation and critical feedback to ensure robustness in development and cellular homeostasis of different tissues and organs.  

 Understanding this multi-level organisation and regulation requires integration of unique expertise, including: structural biology, cryo-electron tomography and 3D reconstruction to study ciliary protein function and dynamics in the highest detail; quantitative proteomics to assess ciliary protein network behaviour upon developmental signalling cues or genetic mutation; (stem) cell biology and biochemistry to deconvolute novel signalling cascades and evaluate existing ones; organoid technology, and zebrafish models to evaluate ciliary signalling in different tissues; and state-of-the-art genomics and bioinformatics to scrutinize the effects of genetic variation in ciliopathy patients and identify therapeutic targets. 

 SCilS has now gathered the required European experts, both scientific and industrial leaders as well as dedicated non-profit organisations that are all motivated to train a new, pan-European cohort of students to become the next generation of independent cilia researchers. These researchers will not only be equipped with unique specializations and skills, but also with a multidisciplinary understanding of ciliary signalling in health and disease, and with important intersectoral experience. This will be achieved by an integrated research and training programme for 14 ESRs, aimed at closing the knowledge gaps in ciliary signalling.