Many roads lead to Rome

Cilia are hair-like projections on the surface of eukaryotic cells that perform essential sensory and motile functions. Defects in cilia are associated with a wide range of human diseases, collectively known as ciliopathies. In work recently published in The EMBO Journal, the lab of Alex Dammermann has identified the core set of genes associated with cilium biogenesis and function, which includes an additional 152 previously uncharacterized genes. The authors’ compendium of ciliogenesis factors provides an invaluable inventory for the further investigation of this important cellular organelle.