Grant: Operating Grant

Every living thing is made up of cells. For a fertilized egg to become a person, or for tissues like the skin and digestive tract to be replenished due to wear and tear, cells must multiply. A cell first makes a copy of its DNA blueprint, and then separates the two copies. Finally, the single "mother cell" must be physically split into two "daughter cells." We are working to understand how this physical splitting takes place. We know that the cell assembles a machine called the contractile ring, which begins large and constricts to close off the connection between the daughter cells. We are defining the specific chemicals that allow the contractile machine to work optimally. We use different kinds of animal cells, to be sure what we discover is true for most cells. We make movies of cells dividing and then measure parameters including curvature, speed and positioning to characterize unperturbed cells and to quantitatively compare them with cells that we have treated. We have an exciting collaboration with a computer scientist who is designing a "virtual contractile ring" according to what we see in the cells. Together, these approaches will help define how cells divide. And because understanding normal cell division is key to treating cells that divide abnormally, our work will shed light on the disease mechanism of conditions involving cell division, and inform the development of anti-cancer drugs.