ElinaK
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elinakosty.bsky.social
ElinaK
@elinakosty.bsky.social
230 followers 410 following 32 posts
Bio PhD candidate. Studying cilia and autism proteins. 🐸 frog stan in @goodfrognosis.bsky.social DSPAN F99/K00. DisabledinSTEM. Opinions are my own.
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elinakosty.bsky.social
Synapses may get all the glory, but join us cilia-philes for our @sfn.org Nanosymposium to learn about the role of cilia in modulating brain activity, behavior, and development.

Sunday November 16th 1-4pm SDCC Room 25A. Thrilled to chair with @konjikusicmia.bsky.social - we'll see you there!
A graphic depicting a brain with an antenna behind it and the large title "Cilia in the brain". The full text is: Join us for a series of talks on: Cilia in the Brain. Sunday November 16, 2025 1:00 PM- 4:00 PM. Sessin # Nano-013, SDCC RM25A, SfN session title: "Primary Cilia Signaling and Function". on the right half an SfN logo is depicted with a list of speakers for this session
October 24, 2025 at 8:44 PM
elinakosty.bsky.social
Another successful WiNSS at @UCSFPsychiatry and looking forward to co-hosting a summer full of cool neuroscience seminars!
June 12, 2025 at 11:39 PM
elinakosty.bsky.social
So excited to present my work at #CellBio2024! I'll be presenting a poster on the convergence of autism proteins at the cilium 👇@goodfrognosis.bsky.social. This is my first time at #CellBio2024 so if you're interested in neurodevelopment, frogs🐸, autism, or cilia please drop by and let's chat!
A graphic depicting two panels. The left has the ASCB Cell Bio 2024 logo, which also includes the date of the conference December 14-18 and San Diego, CA. Below that is a picture of a white woman with dark brown hair and a mustard-colored sweater. Below that is the following text: Poster: Convergence of Autism Proteins at the Cilium. Elina Kostyanovskaya PhD Candidate Helen Rankin Willsey Lab Monday December 16th Board number: B87, Exhibit Hall D-G, Presentation number: P1782, Session: Ciliary Signaling, Motility, Intraflagellar transport. On the right panel is a semi-transparent confocal image of a multiciliated cell with cilia in magenta and the base of cilia in blue and green. In the bottom left corner is a Willsey lab logo, which is a brain outline in the shape of a frog. In the right corner are 4 twitter and blue sky handles @elinakosty, @elinakosty.bsky.social, @goodfrognosis, @goodfrognosis.bsky.social
December 12, 2024 at 1:04 AM
elinakosty.bsky.social
With the help from @curesyngap1.bsky.social and James Schmidt, we tested nNO from 24 individuals with SYNGAP1 variants and observed significantly lower nNO values compared to a direct unaffected family member. (16/ )
In figure B a cartoon depicting multiciliated cells in the epithelium on a peach background with an arrow above labeled "cilia beating" and an arrow pointing to "nitric oxide gas" indicating the production of nitric oxide gas by beating cilia. The peach panel has text that says "typical cilia". Below that a cartoon depicting cilia that look abnormal on a gray background with the label "Cilia defect (structural or mechanical)" and a small fading arrow pointing to a small text label "nitric oxide gas". Figure C has a graph where on the X axis are "unaffected family" and "individual with SYNGAP1 variant" and on the left is "nasal nitric oxide (ppb)". The p-value labeled is 0.0015
December 9, 2024 at 11:24 PM
elinakosty.bsky.social
Since SYNGAP1 trimerizes, we hypothesized that these mutated proteins could also mislocalize non-mutant protein- which they did! (We were able to do this thanks to the power of Xenopus 💪🐸) (13/ )
Figure E, F, and G labeled hSYNGAP1-GFP + hSYNGAP1-mCherry, or hSYNGAP1S140-mCherry, or hSYNGAP1 C233Y-mcherry, respectively. Each figure shows a zoomed out multiciliated cell. Figure E shows the green signal (SYNGAP1) in a large dot at the base of a cilium and along the bottom of an axoneme as demonstrated by green signal in a line from the base. Figure F shows some of that green signal now also at the plasma membrane of the cell. Figure G shows some of that signal now also in aggregates.
December 9, 2024 at 11:24 PM
elinakosty.bsky.social
Next we localized 2 patient-derived missense variants in SYNGAP1 and saw that they mislocalize away from the cilium either to the plasma membrane or into aggregates (12/ )
A figure consisting of figure B, C, and D. Each figure is 4 panels. Figure B depicts a multiciliated cell with many cilia (long hairlike structures) in magenta, green dots along the base and bottom part of the magenta-labeled cilia. The green signal represents SYNGAP1. In blue phalloidin (actin) is labeled. The final panel in B is a close-up of the base and bottom part of the cilia. Figure C has the same set of 4 panels depicting localization of a variant gene labeled SYNGAP1-GFP S140F most of the green signal is now along the plasma membrane. Figure D has the same set of 4 panels depicting localization of a variant gene labeled SYNGAP1-GFPC233y but now the green signal is somewhat at the base but also in green aggregates.
December 9, 2024 at 11:24 PM
elinakosty.bsky.social
Next, we conducted a GFP-based localization screen of the 30 proteins with the strongest statistical association with autism. 12 of these proteins localized to cilia in both rat striatal neuron primary cilia and in frog epidermal motile cilia. (7/ )
A schematic depicting a plasmid with a GFP-tagged autism protein, then branching arrows pointing to a cartoon rat neuron with a primary cilium and an image of a primary cilium on top with the words "rat neuron" underneath and a cartoon multciliated cell with an image of motile cilia, which says "frog epthelium" underneath. Then arrows point to a list of 12 autism proteins that localize to primary in motile cilia in 3 annotated categories: cytoskeleton, neuronal communication, gene expression regulation.
December 9, 2024 at 11:24 PM