Katie Queen was awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation to support her work to understand the regulation of mitotic kinesins, as well as outreach efforts to improve science education at the high school level. Congratulations Katie!

Three manuscripts describing possible approaches to specifically inhibit the growth of aneuploid and chromosomally unstable cancer cells were recently posted on bioRxiv. Our lab contributed to two of these studies, one in collaboration with Uri Ben-David at Tel Aviv University, and we were happy to coordinate preprint submission with Neil Ganem and his lab’s work on cells that have undergone whole genome duplication.

Please check out all 3 papers if you’re interested:
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.18.159327v1
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.18.159038v1
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.18.159095v1

Alex Thompson was awarded an F31 NRSA fellowship from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) to investigate the “Molecular etiology of Spondyloepimetaphyseal Dysplasia with joint laxity, leptodactylic type.” Congratulations Alex!

In collaboration with Laura Reinholdt at the Jackson Laboratory, we used cell culture and mouse models lacking Kif18a function to investigate the consequences of cell division in the absence of chromosome alignment. These studies suggest that a major function of chromosome alignment is to promote interchromosomal compaction during anaphase and organization of all chromosomes into a single, ovoid nucleus at the completions of cell division. You can find the manuscript in JCB here. Congratulations to Stumpff lab members Cindy Fonseca, Heidi Malaby, Leslie Sepaniac, and Dana Messinger and Reinholdt lab members Whitney Martin, Candice Byers, and Anne Czechanski on a very story!

Heidi Malaby and Meghan Dumas (Ohi Lab) use quantitative cell imaging and protein biochemistry to show that KBP functions to buffer the activities of KIF18A and KIF15 during mitosis. You can find the Journal of Cell Biology article describing this work here.

Heidi Malaby and Dominique Lessard (Berger Lab) use a combination of quantitative cell imaging and single molecule motility assays to show that KIF18A’s relatively long neck linker permits navigation of microtubules in the presence of microtubule-associated proteins and concentration of the motor at kinetochore microtubule (kMT) ends.  This work suggests that KIF18A’s ability to move around obstacles on microtubules is required for its chromosome alignment function. You can read the whole paper here in Life Science Alliance (open access).

Heidi Malaby (Stumpff lab) and Dominique Lessard (Berger lab) show that the KIF18A neck linker provides structural flexibility needed to navigate microtubule-bound obstacles like HURP and reach the ends of kinetochore microtubules. You can read the preprint here.

Our recent Preprint describing the function of chromosome alignment was selected by Maiko Kitaoko for a highlight on preLights.

Through collaborations with the Reinholdt, Tang, and Ohi labs, we show that loss of chromosome alignment leads to defects in nuclear envelope reassembly at the completion of mitosis. You can read the preprint here. Congrats to Stumpff lab members Cindy Fonseca, Heidi Malaby, Leslie Sepaniac, and Dana Messinger!

Heidi Malaby and Megan Dumas (Ohi lab) show that kinesin binding protein (KBP) functions to buffer the activity of KIF18A and KIF15 during spindle assembly and chromosome alignment in mitotic cells. You can check out the preprint here.