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Ask the Expert is a forum for scientists at all stages of their careers to ask questions of leading researchers in the field of chemical biology about the techniques their labs use and the types of research they are now doing. Updates will be posted weekly to this website, so check back frequently for new answers.
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Mitotic Spindle Assembly and Function
Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology
University of California, Berkeley
The research goal of Rebecca Heald’s laboratory is to understand intracellular morphogenesis at a molecular level; in particular the complex events that underlie cell division. The major focus is the mitotic spindle, the dynamic macromolecular structure essential for the correct distribution of chromosomes to each daughter cell. The spindle is composed of microtubule polymers and many other factors that generate an antiparallel bipolar array. To learn more about Rebecca Heald and her research, please see her Profile in Volume 1, Issue 9. |
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I will be student teaching soon in high school Biology. My first unit will cover mitosis and meiosis. What kind of real world connections would you suggest I use to link these processes to enhance student understanding? My students will be in 9th and 10th grade. Thank You!
The easiest connections to make are with human development and cancer. A single cell, the fertilized egg, contains two copies of each chromosome and undergoes mitotic divisions to generate all the cells in your body - a number in the trillions. Mitosis must be accurate so....more
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Why/when do eukaryotic cells decide to divide? Is it cell size? Does perhaps the accumulation of kinases pertaining to cell division have threshold values that lead to the initiation of mitosis?
There are many cellular pathways that contribute to the decision to divide. For a "typical" cell to produce viable daughters, it must have duplicated its chromosomes and other contents - so growth and DNA replication are intimately coupled to division. When a kinase, call....more
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I would like to know what you think are the intresting questions still to be studied in this field. Secondly, how can nanotechnology or nanoparticles be used to help this type of research? Thank you very much!
One interesting question in the field is how kinetochores function at a mechanistic level - how do they connect the chromosomes to spindle microtubules and mediate chromosome movements. Although many of the molecules have been identified, we still don't understand how this works at the basic ....more
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