News

July 2024– Kevin Swift successfully defends his thesis! We’re sure you’ll find a great next fit in Portland! We miss you already!

August 2023– William Kasberg successfully defends his thesis! He’ll stay in the lab for a few months before starting a postdoctoral fellowship at Janelia Research Campus with the Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz lab. Congrats William! We’ll miss you when you go!

July 2023– Iryna Pustova successfully defends her thesis and stays on in the lab as a Scientist! Congrats Iryna! We’re so lucky to have you here!

May 2023– James Alvin and Vanessa Obrycki complete their undergraduate studies. James will stay in the lab as a researcher and Vanessa will be around the building as she completes her master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering!

January 2023– Caitlin Mendina joins the lab as part of the Molecular & Environmental and Toxicology graduate program. Welcome Caitlin!

December 2022– Peter Luong successfully defends his thesis! Congrats Peter and we’re glad we still get to see you around while you start your new role with Nikon!

October 2022– Charlene Wilke joins the lab as THE electron microscopist. Welcome Charlene! We are excited to have you aboard!

October 2022– Aryel Clarke’s manuscript “Lgd regulates ESCRT-III complex accumulation at multivesicular endosomes to control intralumenal vesicle formation” is accepted for publication in Molecular Biology of the Cell. Congrats Ary!

August 2022– Jennifer Peotter, Iryna Pustova, and Molly Lettman’s co-first authored manuscript entitled “TFG regulates secretory and endosomal sorting pathways in neurons to promote their activity and maintenance” is accepted for publication in PNAS. Congratulations!

August 2022 – Aryel Clarke successfully defends her thesis! Congratulations Ary, and best of luck in your new role at the University of Wisconsin, Lacrosse!

June 2022 – Jennifer Peotter successfully defends her thesis! Congratulations Jen, and good luck at Boston Consulting Group.

December 2021 – Jon accepts a position as Senior Associate Dean for Basic Research, Biotechnology, and Graduate Studies in the School of Medicine and Public Health.

December 2021 – Raakhee Shankar’s manuscript titled, “The ESCRT machinery directs quality control over inner nuclear membrane architecture” is accepted for publication in Cell Reports. Congratulations, Raakhee!

June 2021 – Raakhee Shankar successfully defends her thesis! Congratulations, Raakhee, and good luck in the Spirou lab at University of South Florida.

March 2021 – Iryna Pustova is awarded a NIH F31 predoctoral fellowship. Congratulations, Iryna!

February 2021 – Ziheng Zhang is awarded a SCRMC Graduate Research Training Award. Congratulations, Ziheng!

January 2021 – A collaborative manuscript titled, “Acetyl-CoA flux from the cytosol to the ER regulates engagement and quality of the secretory pathway.” is accepted for publication in Scientific Reports.


December 2020 – A collaborative manuscript titled, “Turbinmicin inhibits Candida biofilm growth by disrupting fungal vesicle-mediated trafficking” is accepted for publication in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

October 2020 – A collaborative manuscript titled, “A marine microbiome antifungal targets urgent-threat drug-resistant fungi” is accepted for publication in Science.

September 2020 – The Audhya Lab is awarded its first NINDS grant, a R21 to identify common pathomechanisms underlying genetically diverse forms of hereditary spastic paraplegia.

April 2020 – The Cellular and Molecular Biology (CMB) graduate program awards Kyle Quinney with the 2019 Exceptional Thesis Award. Congratulations, Kyle!


December 2019 – Ziheng Zhang and Kevin Swift join the lab as new graduate students from the Cellular and Molecular Biology (CMB) graduate program. Welcome, Ziheng and Kevin!

October 2019 – Jon accepts a position as Associate Dean for Basic Research in the School of Medicine and Public Health.

August 2019 – Kyle Quinney successfully defends his thesis! Congratulations, Kyle, and good luck in the Akhmanova lab at Utrecht University in the Netherlands!

July 2019 – Jon is promoted to the rank of Professor.

June 2019 – Sam Block’s protocol titled, “Biochemical Approaches to Studying Caenorhabditis elegans ESCRT Functions In Vitro” is published in Methods in Molecular Biology.

May 2019 – Jon is named the inaugural director of the SMPH Office of Cores.

April 2019 – The Audhya lab renews a R01 to continue to study early secretory pathway organization and function.

April 2019 – Aryel Clarke is awarded a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Congratulations, Ary!

April 2019 – Jennifer Peotter is awarded a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Congratulations, Jen!

March 2019 – A collaborative manuscript titled, “Mad1 destabilizes p53 by preventing PML from sequestering MDM2” is accepted for publication in Nature Communications.

February 2019 – Kyle Quinney’s manuscript titled, “Growth factor stimulation promotes multivesicular endosome biogenesis by prolonging recruitment of the late-acting ESCRT machinery” is accepted for publication in PNAS. Congratulations, Kyle!


December 2018 – Jennifer Peotter is awarded a slot on the Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology Training Grant. Congratulations, Jen!

September 2018 – A collaborative manuscript titled, “Mutations in GFAP Disrupt the Distribution and Function of Organelles in Human Astrocytes” is accepted for publication in Cell Reports.

August 2018 – Jon receives an equipment supplement to purchase a Molecular Devices high content imaging system (IXM4) for the lab.

July 2018 – Our highly collaborative manuscript titled, “Pathogenic TFG mutations underlying hereditary spastic paraplegia impair secretory protein trafficking and axon fasciculation” is accepted for publication in Cell Reports. Congratulations, Erin, Amber, and Iryna, the joint first authors!

June 2018 – Elisa Frankel successfully defends her thesis! Congratulations, Elisa, and good luck in the Kielian lab at Albert Einstein College of Medicine as their new Postdoctoral IRACDA/BETTR Scholar!

June 2018 – A collaborative manuscript titled, “A simple supported tubulated bilayer system for evaluating protein-mediated membrane remodeling” is accepted for publication in Chemistry and Physics of Lipids.

April 2018 – Jon receives a NIH Shared Instrumentation Grant to purchase a Nikon multiphoton microscope, which will be housed in the UW-Madison Optical Imaging Core Facility.

April 2018 – Jon receives a UW2020 grant to improve CRISPR-mediated genome editing approaches in animal models of disease.

April 2018 – Mike Hanna’s review titled, “Membrane transport at an organelle interface in the early secretory pathway: Take your coat off and stay a while” is accepted for publication in BioEssays. Congratulations, Mike!

March 2018 – Molly Lettman gives a talk on behalf of the Audhya Lab at the annual Tom Wahlig Foundation Symposium. Thanks, Molly!

February 2018 – Jon receives an award from the Tom Wahlig Foundation.

January 2018 – Molly Lettman joins the lab as new staff researcher. Welcome Molly!


December 2017 – Aryel Clarke, William Kasberg, Jennifer Peotter, and Iryna Pustova join the lab as new graduate students from the Integrated Program in Biochemistry (IPiB). Welcome, Aryel, William, Jennifer and Iryna!

December 2017 – Peter Luong joins the lab as a new graduate student from the Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology (MCP) graduate program. Welcome, Peter!

December 2017 – Elisa Frankel receives a poster award at the ASCB annual meeting. Congratulations, Elisa!

November 2017 – A collaborative manuscript titled, “Dynamic glycosylation governs the vertebrate COPII protein trafficking pathway” is accepted for publication in Biochemistry.

October 2017 – Elisa Frankel’s manuscript titled, “Ist1 regulates ESCRT-III assembly and function during multivesicular endosome biogenesis in Caenorhabditis elegans embryos” is finally accepted for publication in Nature Communications. Congratulations, Elisa!

September 2017 – Elisa Frankel receives a travel award to attend this year’s ASCB annual meeting. Congratulations, Elisa!

September 2017 – Maya Charan, Daniel Kieffer, and Ken Fiala join the lab as new undergraduate researchers. Welcome all!

August 2017 – Michael Hanna’s manuscript titled, “TFG facilitates outer coat disassembly on COPII transport carriers to promote tethering and fusion with ERGIC membranes” is accepted for publication in PNAS. Congratulations, Mike!

August 2017 – Erin McMillan successfully defends her thesis! Congratulations, Erin, and good luck at Cellular Dynamics International!

July 2017 – Jon receives a MPI grant from the National Science Foundation (together with Qiang Cui and Saverio Spagnolie).

July 2017 – Michael Hanna successfully defends his thesis! Congratulations, Mike, and good luck in Pietro De Camilli’s lab for your postdoc!

June 2017 – Erin McMillan is selected again to give a talk at the annual Endocrinology and Reproductive Physiology (ERP) symposium. Congratulations, Erin.

May 2017 – Audhya lab members visit the Advanced Imaging Center at Janelia and image on the lattice light sheet microscope.

May 2017 – Prerna Jain joins the lab as a Khorana summer student. Welcome, Prerna!

April 2017 – Shalini Shatadal joins the lab as an Associate Researcher. Welcome Shalini!

February 2017 – A collaborative manuscript titled, “Membrane remodeling during embryonic abscission in Caenorhabditis elegans” is accepted for publication in the JCB.

February 2017 – Jon receives a grant from the Spastic Paraplegia Foundation.

January 2017 – Jon receives an H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship.

January 2017 – Dhruva Nair joins the lab as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome, Dhruva!


September 2016 – Sarah Tanjung joins the lab as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome, Sarah!

June 2016 – The Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology T32 training grant with Jon as PI is awarded to UW-Madison.

June 2016 – A collaborative manuscript titled, “Identification of a novel SPG57 variant affecting TFG oligomerization and description of HSP subtypes in Sudan” is accepted for publication in European Journal of Human Genetics.

June 2016 – Michael Hanna visits the Schekman lab at UC Berkeley to learn about the in vitro COPII budding reaction.

June 2016 – Lei Wang’s manuscript titled, “Eps15 membrane binding and bending activity acts redundantly with Fcho1 during clathrin-mediated endocytosis” is accepted for publication in Molecular Biology of the Cell (and selected for ‘Highlights from MBoC’). Congratulations, Lei!

June 2016 – Raakhee Shankar joins the lab as a new graduate student from the Cellular and Molecular Biology (CMB) program. Welcome, Raakhee!

June 2016 – David Dyer joins the lab as a new research scientist. Welcome, Dave!

June 2016 – The Audhya lab renews a R01 to study ESCRT structure and function.

June 2016 – Erin McMillan is selected to give a talk at the annual Endocrinology and Reproductive Physiology (ERP) symposium. Congratulations, Erin.

May 2016 – Lei Wang successfully defends her thesis and makes a move to Harvard Medical School for a postdoctoral position with Dr. Tomas Kirchhausen. Congratulations and good luck, Lei!

May 2016 – Bhargav Sanketi joins the lab as a Khorana summer student. Welcome, Bhargav!

May 2016 – Benjamin Heinz joins the lab as a student hourly. Welcome, Benjamin!

May 2016 – Adam Johnson successfully defends his thesis and makes a move to Harvard Medical School for a postdoctoral position with Dr. Steve Harrison. Congratulations and good luck, Adam!

April 2016 – Jennifer Bird receives a Hilldale Undergraduate Research Fellowship. Congratulations, Jenny!

March 2016 – Samuel Block receives a Department of Biochemisty Undergraduate Summer Research Scholarship. Congratulations, Sam!

January 2016 – Jon receives a Vilas Faculty Early Career Investigator Award.


November 2015 – Michael Hanna’s manuscript titled, “Sar1 GTPase activity is regulated by membrane curvature” is accepted for publication in the JBC (and selected as a ‘Paper of the Week’). Congratulations, Mike!

November 2015 – Michael Hanna receives a Keystone Symposia scholarship to attend the ‘Neurological Disorders of Intracellular Trafficking’ meeting. Congratulations, Mike!

October 2015 – Sandhya Callaci’s manuscript entitled, “Phosphoregulation of the C. elegans cadherin-catenin complex” is accepted for publication in the Biochemical Journal. Congratulations, Sandhya!

June 2015 – Erin McMillan is awarded a slot on the Endocrinology and Reproductive Physiology (ERP) T32 training grant. Congratulations, Erin!

June 2015 – Jon receives a Vilas Associates Award.

February 2015 – The Audhya lab receives a R01 to study TFG structure and function.

January 2015 – Amber Schuh’s manuscript titled, “The VPS-20 Subunit of the Endosomal Sorting Complex ESCRT-III Exhibits an Open Conformation in the Absence of Upstream Activation” is accepted for publication in the Biochemical Journal. Congratulations, Amber!

January 2015 – Molly Mcmahon joins the lab as a new laboratory assistant. Welcome, Molly!


December 2014 – Kartik Gupta joins the lab as a new graduate student from the Cellular and Molecular Biology (CMB) program. Welcome, Kartik!

December 2014 – Adam Johnson’s manuscript titled, “TFG clusters COPII-coated transport carriers and promotes early secretory pathway organization” is accepted for publication in the EMBO Journal. Congratulations, Adam!

November 2014 – Our study in collaboration with Mike Edwardson’s group titled, “Hrs and STAM function synergistically to bind ubiquitin-modified cargoes in vitro” is accepted at the Biophysical Journal.

October 2014 – The Audhya Lab is awarded a pilot grant from the UWCCC to use human induced pluripotent stem cells to generate cells of the thyroid lineage in vitro.

September 2014 – A new collaborative paper with Beth Weaver’s group titled, “A Golgi localized pool of the mitotic checkpoint component Mad1 controls integrin secretion and cell migration” is accepted at Current Biology.

August 2014 – Qingtao Shen’s manuscript titled, “Mechanisms governing ESCRT-III spiral filament assembly” is accepted by the Journal of Cell Biology and takes the cover! Congratulations, Qingtao!

July 2014 – A new collaborative review titled, “Novel Approaches in Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer Therapy” is accepted for publication in the Oncologist.

July 2014 – A new collaborative paper with Alan Attie’s group titled, “Sorcs1 is Required for Normal Dense Core Vesicle Biogenesis in Metabolically Stressed Beta-Cells” is accepted by the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

June 2014 – Amber Schuh accepts a senior scientist position at PPD, Inc. Congratulations and best of luck to Amber!

May 2014 – The Audhya Lab is awarded an ICTR pilot grant to study the role of TFG in neurons.

March 2014 – Lei Wang’s manuscript titled, “In vivo imaging of C. elegans endocytosis” is accepted in Methods. Congratulations, Lei!

January 2014 – Jon is asked to serve on the Human Frontier Science Program Fellowship Review Committee (for a 4 year term).

January 2014 – A new collaborative paper titled, “Spatial control of phospholipid flux restricts endoplasmic reticulum sheet formation to allow nuclear envelope breakdown” appears in Genes and Development.


December 2013 – Kyle Quinney joins the lab as a new graduate student from the Cellular and Molecular Biology (CMB) program. Welcome, Kyle!

December 2013 – Amber Schuh is awarded a slot on the UW Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Tumor Development T32. Congratulations, Amber.

September 2013 – A new collaborative paper titled, “The midbody ring scaffolds abscission in the absence of midbody microtubules in the C. elegans embryo” is accepted for publication in the Journal of Cell Biology.

September 2013 – Amber Schuh is selected by her peers to give a talk at the annual Integrated Program in Biochemistry (IPiB) retreat. Congratulations, Amber.

September 2013 – The Audhya lab receives a pilot grant from the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center (UWCCC) to study the impact of ERK signaling in tumorigenesis.

September 2013 – Erin McMillan joins the lab as a new graduate student from the Endocrinology and Reproductive Physiology (ERP)
program. Welcome, Erin!

September 2013 – Sandhya Callaci joins the lab as a new Research Specialist. Welcome, Sandhya!

September 2013 – Alison Novak joins the lab as a new undergraduate research assistant. Welcome, Alison!

August 2013 – Kelly Douglas joins the lab as a new laboratory assistant. Welcome, Kelly!

June 2013 – Jon Mayers’ recent paper is officially accepted for publication in PNAS. Congratulations to Jon, Lei, and Adam for getting this manuscript to press.

May 2013 – New Audhya Lab website launches. After much dawdling, we have contracted with MKE Interactive to generate a website that much better reflects our current research program. Our goal is to keep things up to date and continually provide a vision of where our research is heading in the future.