Grant: Project Grant

From simple unicellular bacteria to humans composed of billions of cells, all living organisms must undergo cell division to grow and proliferate. Healthy cells precisely replicate their DNA (in the form of chromosomes) and then ensure one copy of each chromosome is inhertited by each daughter cell by the end of cell division. In cancer cells, chromosome inheritance is frequently defective, leading cells to receive too many chromosomes or too few. These mistakes arise from defects in the mitotic spindle, which forms at the start of mitosis to collect and separate the chromosomes. While we have learned a great deal about the physical process of chromosome segregation, we know little about how mistakes in the early steps of building the mitotic spindle cause errors in chromosome segregation. We will study the steps of spindle construction and measure the number and kind of mistakes that occur in healthy cells, as well as cells that have mutations found in human cancers. In this way, we will discover why healthy cells make few mistakes, but cells with mutations that cause cancer make many mistakes. Our findings will help develop new therapies for cancer treatment.