Our laboratory is interested in general principles in biology regarding the counting and assembling of complex subcellular structures, and their variations observed during development, in disease and evolution. We use complex cytoskeletal assemblies, such as centrioles and cilia, as study subjects. Centrioles are microtubule-based cylinders that form centrosomes and cilia, structures involved in many functions, from cell motility to division. Centrosome defects are seen in many cancers, while abnormalities in cilia lead to many diseases including polycystic kidneys and infertility. Finally, centrioles and cilia are highly conserved throughout the eukaryotic tree of life, but have been lost in a variety of species, providing an excellent study case to study the evolution of eukaryotic cellular structures. Using multidisciplinary approaches our laboratory identified critical molecular regulators of centriole number, diversity and maintenance, circuits that control those players, and mechanisms involved in the evolution of those structures. We follow three complementary research lines in their output: Basic Mechanisms of Biogenesis, Maintenance & Function, Disease (cancer) and Evolution.