Tubulin proteins are the building blocks of microtubules, a key element of the cellular cytoskeleton. Research has shown in mice and humans that variants in tubulins lead to drastic malformations of cortical development. The tubulin genes together make up a family of genes with high-sequence similarity and, often, adjacent positions in the genome. The Stottmann Lab uses genome editing techniques to make a series of alleles to test the requirements for these genes as this has never been tested. Its team is  also generating new models of human disease variants and constructing a new tool to address expression and regulation of tubulin genes.