Dr. Reiter investigates the ways in which cells communicate with each other during normal development and how this communication goes awry in disease. Much of his recent work has focused on the functions of primary cilia, Hedgehog signals, cancer, and wound healing. The Reiter lab has been elucidating mechanisms by which cilia transduce signals such as Hedgehogs, demonstrating that cancer cells can be ciliated and that cilia mediate Hedgehog-related oncogenesis, and elucidating how a region of the cilium, the transition zone, controls ciliary composition. Mutations in genes encoding transition zone components underlie a spectrum of diseases, now being called ciliopathies.