The research program in Seth Field’s laboratory is driven by the hypothesis that a more thorough understanding of the functions of the phosphoinositides (a unique group of lipid signaling molecules) will provide fundamentally new insights into cell biology and consequently human pathophysiology. His lab is developing and utilizing cutting-edge approaches to study the functions of the phosphoinositides and the signaling pathways that they regulate. Their results to date provide strong validation of the approach, including the discovery of a novel role for PtdIns(4,5)P2 in mitotic cytokinesis, a novel feedback loop in the insulin signaling pathway via PtdIns(3,4,5)P3, and a new understanding of a surprisingly simple link between Golgi form and function based on his lab’s discovery of a novel PtdIns(4)P-dependent secretory complex. Seth’s laboratory is continuing to extend and amplify these findings, as well as to continue to apply their approaches to identify new functions for the phosphoinositides.