The paper shows that organelle volume in C. elegans oocytes influences spindle positioning during meiosis by affecting the central ball of organelles.

bioRxiv · Oct 9, 2026 · PreprintCell Biology

CRISPR-mediated transcriptional activation as a mutation-independent therapeutic strategy for SYNGAP1-related intellectual disability

Laura Sichlinger, Molly B. Reilly, Sakshi Arora, Shuo Zhang, Nicolas Marotta, Kiara L. Rodríguez-Acevedo, Marisol Hooks, Kyle S. Czarnecki, Julia J. Winter, Elisa A. Waxman, Lea V. Dungan, Ingie Hong, Yoichi Araki, Richard C. Johnson, Richard L. Huganir, , Elizabeth A. Heller

This paper demonstrates that CRISPR-mediated transcriptional activation can upregulate SYNGAP1 in a mouse model of SRID and human neurons, rescuing deficits without targeting mutations.

bioRxiv · Oct 28, 2025 · PreprintNeuroscience

Integrating bulk and single cell RNA-seq refines transcriptomic profiles of individual C. elegans neurons

Alec Barrett, Erdem Varol, Alexis Weinreb, Seth R. Taylor, Rebecca M. McWhirter, Cyril Cros, Berta Vidal, Manasa Basaravaju, Abigail Poff, John A. Tipps, Maryam Majeed, Chen Wang, Emily A. Bayer, Molly B. Reilly, Eviatar Yemini, , Marc Hammarlund

The paper integrates bulk and single-cell RNA-seq data from C. elegans neurons to improve transcript detection and differential gene analysis.

bioRxiv · Jan 26, 2025 · PreprintGenomics

Widespread employment of conserved C. elegans homeobox genes in neuronal identity specification

Molly B. Reilly, Tessa Tekieli, Cyril Cros, G. Robert Aguilar, James Lao, Itai Antoine Toker, Berta Vidal, Eduardo Leyva‐Díaz, Abhishek Bhattacharya, Steven J. Cook, Jayson J. Smith, Ismar Kovacevic, Burcu Gülez, Robert W. Fernandez, Elisabeth F. Bradford, , Oliver Hobert

The paper investigates the role of homeobox genes in neuronal identity specification in C. elegans, finding that 111 of 118 neuron classes require homeobox genes for proper differentiation.

PLoS Genetics · Sep 30, 2022Peer-reviewedNeuroscience

Integrating bulk and single cell RNA-seq refines transcriptomic profiles of individual C. elegans neurons

Alec Barrett, Erdem Varol, Alexis Weinreb, Seth R. Taylor, Rebecca M. McWhirter, Cyril Cros, Berta Vidal, Manasa Basavaraju, Abigail Poff, John A. Tipps, Maryam Majeed, Chen Wang, Emily A. Bayer, Molly B. Reilly, Eviatar Yemini, , Marc Hammarlund

The paper integrates bulk and single-cell RNA-seq data from C. elegans neurons to improve transcript detection and differential gene analysis.

bioRxiv · Apr 5, 2022 · PreprintGenomics

The enteric nervous system of C. elegans is specified by the Sine Oculis-like homeobox gene ceh-34

Berta Vidal, Burcu Gülez, Wen Xi Cao, Eduardo Leyva‐Díaz, Molly B. Reilly, Tessa Tekieli, Oliver Hobert

This study identifies ceh-34 as a key gene specifying enteric nervous system differentiation in C. elegans, showing its role in neuron type-specific programs and circuit assembly.

eLife · Mar 24, 2022Peer-reviewedNeuroscience

Molecular topography of an entire nervous system

Seth R. Taylor, Gabriel Santpere, Alexis Weinreb, Alec Barrett, Molly B. Reilly, Chuan Xu, Erdem Varol, Panos Oikonomou, Lori Glenwinkel, Rebecca D. McWhirter, Abigail Poff, Manasa Basavaraju, Ibnul Rafi, Eviatar Yemini, Steven J. Cook, , David M. Miller

The paper provides a comprehensive gene expression profile of all 302 neurons in the C. elegans nervous system and identifies cis-regulatory elements and adhesion proteins involved in synaptic specificity.

Cell · Jul 7, 2021Peer-reviewedNeuroscience

Expression profiling of the mature C. elegans nervous system by single-cell RNA-Sequencing

Seth R. Taylor, Gabriel Santpere, Molly B. Reilly, Lori Glenwinkel, Abigail Poff, Rebecca D. McWhirter, Chuan Xu, Alexis Weinreb, Manasa Basavaraju, Steven J. Cook, Alec Barrett, Alexander J. Abrams, Berta Vidal, Cyril Cros, Ibnul Rafi, , David M. Miller

Transcriptomes of 52,412 neurons resolve 109 of the 118 canonical hermaphrodite neuron classes, and neuropeptide genes separate subtypes inside individual classes.

bioRxiv · Aug 17, 2019 · PreprintNeuroscience