Aditya Saxena

I first joined the Skaer lab as an undergraduate student in 2005, and after graduating with a BA (Hons) in Natural Sciences I continued my work as a Research Assistant for a further year. During this time my research focused on investigating the parallels between insect excretory cells called nephrocytes and podocyte cells of the vertebrate kidney. I rejoined the lab in 2008 as a PhD student on the Wellcome Trust Four Year Programme in Developmental Biology. My project aims to understand how single specialised ‘tip’ cells located at the distal-most ends of the Drosophila renal tubules contribute to regulated tubule morphogenesis.

Weavers H, Prieto-Sánchez S, Grawe F, Garcia-López A, Artero R, Wilsch-Bräuninger M, Ruiz-Gómez M, Skaer H, Denholm B. (2009) The insect nephrocyte is a podocyte-like cell with a filtration slit diaphragm. Nature 457: 322-326