Kentro JA*, Singh G*, Pham TM, Currie J, Khullar S, Medeiros AT, Larschan E, O’Connor-Giles KM. (2026). Deaf1 regulates the coordinated repression of synaptic genes to limit synaptogenesis. bioRxiv.
Paola Van der Linden Costello, Marina N Wennerberg, Jerrik A Rydbom, Scott Gratz, Lauren F Fennema, Kate M. O’Connor-Giles and Heather T Broihier. (2026) Selective regulation of transsynaptic alignment and postsynaptic assembly by a novel NCAM family synaptic adhesion molecule. bioRxiv.
Tennant N, Pavuluri A, Singh G, Cortez K, O’Connor-Giles K, Larschan E, Singh R. (2026) An snRNA-seq aging clock for the fruit fly head sheds light on sex-biased aging. Scientific Reports.
Thakur RS, O’Connor-Giles KM. (2025). PDZD8 links organelle crosstalk to synaptic remodeling via autophagy. Autophagy.
Neuman SD*, Thakur RS*, Gratz SJ, O’Connor-Giles KM#, Bashirullah A#. (2025). Neurodegenerative and Neurodevelopmental Roles for Bulk Lipid Transporters VPS13A and BLTP2. Movement Disorders.*Equal contribution, # Corresponding authors.
Thakur RS, O’Connor-Giles KM. (2025). PDZD8 promotes autophagy at ER-lysosome membrane contact sites to regulate activity-dependent synaptic growth. Cell Reports.
Madhwani KR, Sayied S, Ogata CH, Hogan CA, Lentini JM, Mallik M, Dumouchel JL, Storkebaum E, Fu D, O’Connor-Giles KM.(2024). tRNA modification enzyme-dependent redox homeostasis regulates synapse formation and memory. Proc Natl Acad Sci.
Medeiros AT, Gratz SJ#, Delgado A, Ritt JT, O’Connor-Giles KM#. (2024). Ca2+ channel and active zone protein abundance intersects with input-specific synapse organization to shape functional synaptic diversity. Elife. #Corresponding authors.
DePew AT, Bruckner JJ, O’Connor-Giles KM, Mosca TJ. (2024). Neuronal LRP4 directs the development, maturation and cytoskeletal organization of Drosophila peripheral synapses. Development.
Medeiros, A.T., and O’Connor-Giles, K.M. (2023). To b or not to b: transcriptional regulation of tonic type Ib vs. phasic type Is motor neurons. Neuron 111, 3497-3499.
Gratz, S., O’Connor-Giles, K.M., and Wildonger, J. (2023a). Introduction to CRISPR and Its Use in Drosophila. Cold Spring Harbor Protocols.
Gratz, S., O’Connor-Giles, K.M., and Wildonger, J. (2023b). Generating CRISPR Alleles in Drosophila. Cold Spring Harbor Protocols.
Hogan, C.A., Gratz, S.J., Dumouchel, J.L.*, Thakur, R.S., Delgado, A., Lentini, J.M., Madhwani, K.R., Fu, D., and O’Connor-Giles, K.M. (2023). Expanded tRNA methyltransferase family member TRMT9B regulates synaptic growth and function. EMBO Reports.
Tina Ghelani, Marc Escher, Ulrich Thomas, Klara Esch, Janine Lützkendorf, Harald Depner, Marta Maglione, Pierre Parutto, Scott Gratz, Stefanie Ryglewski, Alexander Walter, David Holcman, Kate O’Connor-Giles, Martin Heine#, and Stephan Sigrist#. (2023). An active zone state switch concentrates and immobilizes voltage-gated Ca2+ channels to promote long-term plasticity. Science Advances. #Corresponding authors.
Calderon, D*, R. Blecher-Gonen*, X. Huang*, S. Secchia*, J. Kentro, R.M. Daza, B. Martin, A. Dulja, C. Schaub, C. Trapnell, E. Larschan, K.M. O’Connor-Giles, E.E.M. Furlong#, and J. Shendure#. (2022). The continuum of Drosophila embryonic development at single-cell resolution. Science. #Corresponding authors.
Isabella AJ, Leyva-Díaz E, Kaneko H, Gratz SJ, Moens CB, Hobert O, O’Connor-Giles K, Thakur R, Sun H. (2021). The field of neurogenetics: where it stands and where it is going. Genetics.
Hoover, K. M., Gratz, S. J., Qi, N., Herrmann, K. A., Liu, Y., Perry-Richardson, J. J., Vanderzalm, P. J., O’Connor-Giles, K. M. and Broihier, H. T. (2019) The calcium channel subunit alpha2delta-3 organizes synapses via an activity-dependent and autocrine BMP signaling pathway. Nat Commun 10(1): 5575.
Gratz, S.J., Goel, P., Bruckner, J.J., Hernandez, R.X., Khateeb, K., Macleod, G.T., Dickman, D. and O’Connor-Giles, K.M. (2019). Endogenous Tagging Reveals Differential Regulation of Ca(2+) Channels at Single Active Zones during Presynaptic Homeostatic Potentiation and Depression. The Journal of Neuroscience 39, 2416-2429.
Bier, E., Harrison, M.M., O’Connor-Giles, K.M., and Wildonger, J. (2018). Advances in Engineering the Fly Genome with the CRISPR-Cas System. Genetics 208, 1-18.
Bruckner, J.J., Zhan, H., Gratz, S.J., Rao, X., Zilberg, G. and O’Connor-Giles, K.M. (2017). Fife organizes synaptic vesicles and calcium channels for high-probability neurotransmitter release. The Journal of Cell Biology 216 (1) 231-246.
Zhan, H., Bruckner, J.J., Zhang, Z. and O’Connor-Giles, K.M. (2016). Three-dimensional imaging of Drosophila motor synapses reveals ultrastructural organizational patterns. Journal of Neurogenetics 30(3-4):237-246.
O’Connor-Giles, K.M., Zhang, B., Simpson, J.H. and Wu, C.F. (2016). The neurogenetics of Drosophila: the Ganetzky legacy. Journal of Neurogenetics 30(3-4):149-151.
O’Connor-Giles, K. (2016). Toll-tally tubular: A newly identified Toll-like receptor-FoxO pathway regulates dynamics of the neuronal microtubule network. The Journal of Cell Biology 214, 371-373.
Ukken, F.P., Bruckner, J.J., Weir, K.L., Hope, S.J., Sison, S.L., Birschbach, R.M., Hicks, L., Taylor, K.L., Dent, E.W., Gonsalvez, G.B. and O’Connor-Giles, K.M. (2016). BAR-SH3 sorting nexins are conserved interacting proteins of Nervous wreck that organize synapses and promote neurotransmission. Journal of Cell Science 129, 166-177.
Hicks, L., Liu, G., Ukken, F.P., Lu, S., Bollinger, K.E., O’Connor-Giles, K., and Gonsalvez, G.B. (2015). Depletion or over-expression of Sh3px1 results in dramatic changes in cell morphology. Biology Open 4(11):1448-61.
Akbari, B. O., Bellen, H. J., Bier, E., Bullock, S. L., Burt, A., Church, G. M., Cook, K. R., Duchek, P., Edwards, O. R., Esvelt, K. M., Gantz, V. M., Golic, K. G., Gratz, S. J., Harrison, M. M., Hayes, K. R., James, A. A., Kaufman, T. C., Knoblich, J., Malik, H. S., Matthews, K. A., O’Connor-Giles, K. M., Parks, A. L., Perrimon, N., Port, R., Russell, S., Ueda, R., and Wildonger, J. (2015). Safeguarding gene drive experiments in the laboratory. Science 349, 927-929.
Gratz, S.J., Rubinstein, C.D., Harrison, M.M., Wildonger, J., and O’Connor-Giles, K.M. (2015). CRISPR-Cas9 Genome Editing in Drosophila. Current Protocols in Molecular Biology 111, 31.2.1-20.
Kimble, J., Bement, W. M., Chang, Q., Cox, B. L., Drinkwater, N. R., Gourse, R. L., Hoskins, A. A., Huttenlocher, A., Kreeger, P. K., Lambert, P. F., Mailick, M. R., Miyamoto, S., Moss, R. L., O’Connor-Giles, K. M., Roopra, A., Saha, K. and Seidel, H. S. (2015). Strategies from UW-Madison for rescuing biomedical research in the US. eLife 4: e09305.
Bruckner, J.J., Zhan, H., and O’Connor-Giles, K.M. (2015). Advances in imaging ultrastructure yield new insights into presynaptic biology. Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience 9, 196.
Harrison, M.M., Jenkins, B.V., O’Connor-Giles, K.M., and Wildonger, J. (2014). A CRISPR view of development. Genes & development 28, 1859-1872.
Gratz, S.J., Ukken, F.P., Rubinstein, C.D., Thiede, G., Donohue, L.K., Cummings, A.M., and O’Connor-Giles, K.M. (2014). Highly Specific and Efficient CRISPR/Cas9-Catalyzed Homology-Directed Repair in Drosophila. Genetics 196, 961-971.
Gratz, S.J., Wildonger, J., Harrison, M.M., and O’Connor-Giles, K.M. (2013b). CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome engineering and the promise of designer flies on demand. Fly (Austin) 7.
Gratz, S.J., Cummings, A.M., Nguyen, J.N., Hamm, D.C., Donohue, L.K., Harrison, M.M., Wildonger, J., and O’Connor-Giles, K.M. (2013a). Genome engineering of Drosophila with the CRISPR RNA-guided Cas9 nuclease. Genetics 194, 1029-1035.
Bruckner, J., Gratz, S., Slind, J., Geske, R., Cummings, A., Galindo, S., Donohue, L. and O’Connor-Giles, K. (2012) Fife, a Drosophila Piccolo-RIM homolog, promotes active zone organization and neurotransmitter release. J Neuorsci. 32(48), 17048-58.
Babaoglan, A.B., O’Connor-Giles, K.M., Mistry, H. Schickedanz, A., Wilson, B.A. and Skeath, J.B. (2009). Sanpodo: a context-dependent activator and inhibitor of Notch signaling during asymmetric divisions. Development 136, 4089-4098.
O’Connor-Giles, K.M. and Ganetzky, B. (2008). Satellite Signaling at Synapses. Fly 2(5), 259-261.
O’Connor-Giles, K.M., Ho, L.L. and Ganetzky, B. (2008). Nervous wreck interacts with Thickveins and the endocytic machinery to attenuate retrograde BMP growth signaling during synaptic growth. Neuron 58, 507-518.
Eberl, D., Kitamoto, T., Berke, B., O’Connor-Giles, K., Ueda, A., Lee, J., Ruan, H., Engel, J. and Ganetzky, B. (2008). Meeting report: genes, neurons, circuits, and behaviors: highlights of Cold Spring Harbor Meeting on Drosophila neurobiology. Oct 3-7, 2007. Journal of Neurogenetics 22, 3-13.
O’Connor-Giles, K.M. and Skeath, J.B. (2003) Numb inhibits membrane localization of Sanpodo, a four-pass transmembrane protein, to promote asymmetric divisions in Drosophila. Dev Cell 5(2), 231-43.
*These authors contributed equally.