Rate My Professor Eszter Vladar

Dr. Vladar's research investigates the molecular mechanisms underlying airway epithelial homeostasis, with a focus on multiciliated cells critical for mucociliary clearance. She has pioneered studies on ciliogenesis, demonstrating control by Notch and non-canonical Wnt/planar cell polarity signaling, and conducted single-cell RNA sequencing to elucidate ciliated cell states in health and disease. Her lab employs advanced mouse models, primary human and mouse airway epithelial cultures, confocal and electron microscopy, and transcriptomics techniques now widely used in the field. Notable publications include 'Multicilin promotes centriole assembly and ciliogenesis during multiciliate cell differentiation' (Nature Cell Biology, 2012), 'Microtubules enable the planar cell polarity of airway cilia' (Current Biology, 2012), 'Cyclin-dependent kinase control of motile ciliogenesis' (eLife, 2018), and 'Transcriptional analysis of cystic fibrosis airways at single-cell resolution reveals altered epithelial cell states and composition' (Nature Medicine, 2021). Her contributions inform treatments for chronic lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis, COPD, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Awards include the NIH Tumor Biology Postdoctoral Fellowship (2007), A.P. Giannini Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (2008), Boettcher Foundation Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Award (2018), and University of Colorado School of Medicine Department of Medicine Rising Star Award (2020). She has delivered invited lectures at Gordon Research Conferences and Keystone Symposia.