Need to Beat

The tiny whiskery beating hairs called cilia present on many of our cells are vital for processes all over the body, such as in respiration and in the brain, wafting fluids in the right direction. So when affected by gene mutations causing ciliopathies (disorders in which cilia beat aberrantly or not at all ) the impact can be devastating. Here, studying frog ciliated cells researchers show, advancing understanding of its role in vertebrates, that function of a gene called Lrrc56 is essential for cilia action and provides insight into mechanisms underlying the inherited ciliopathy primary ciliary dyskinesia

Read the published research article here

Written by Lindsey Goff

Lindsey Goff

Editor-in-Chief

Formerly immunologist for Cancer Research UK, Lindsey has since moved into the field of scientific publishing. She looks after all BPoD editorial matters.

• Image from work by Nayeli G. Reyes-Nava and colleagues
• Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Disease Models & Mechanisms, December 2025