Phosphatidylinositol phosphates (PIPs) are membrane lipids with roles in cell growth, signaling and morphogenesis. Alterations in the levels of PIPs are associated with human developmental disorders and diseases such as cancers, yet little is known about the normal roles of PIPs during animal development.

The Brill lab investigates the roles of PIPs using powerful molecular genetic approaches available in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. They have uncovered novel roles for PIPs and PIP pathway enzymes in sperm development, secretory granule maturation and tissue integrity. Brill's current research seeks to determine how PIPs and PIP pathway enzymes control these processes and to identify upstream regulators and downstream targets of PIP signaling.

In a second area of research, the Brill lab has recently begun to study mechanisms of post-transcriptional regulation and roles of long noncoding RNAs in sperm development. Because PIPs and RNA regulation play crucial roles in all eukaryotes, their results will reveal conserved cellular mechanisms that are fundamental to human development and disease.