The Marciano laboratory investigates fundamental aspects of cellular adhesion and signaling in health and disease. As a physician-scientist with an interest in kidney disease, Dr. Marciano focuses on the role of cell adhesion and signaling in normal kidney development, maintenance, and various kidney diseases. Her laboratory has made seminal discoveries on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of renal tubule development and has proposed the first step-wise model of lumen formation during renal tubulogenesis. This model applies not only to tubules in the kidney, but also more broadly to tubule formation in other polarized epithelial structures such as blood vessels, pancreatic tubules, and lung airways. In addition, her laboratory studies the role of kidney mesangial cells, specialized cells whose dysregulated activity are a hallmark of many common kidney diseases. Specifically, her laboratory has discovered the molecular machinery of a novel adhesion structure connecting mesangial cells and the glomerular basement membrane, and showed that this structure regulates mesangial cell function. More information about current lab projects can be found at the Marciano Laboratory website.