NSF Young Investigator

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This is a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award. The awardee is using a combined genetic, biochemical, and cell biological approach to understand how centrosomes (spindle pole bodies) replicate in cells, using as a model cell the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. %%% The centrosome is a subcellular organelle made up of a highly organized set of microtubules. It serves as a microtubule organizing center for the cell, and is critical to the process of mitosis. During cell division, the genetic information of the cell, contained in the chromosomes, is apportioned equally between the two daughter cells by means of microtubules arrayed in a structure called the mitotic spindle. During the mitotic process, chromosomes are dragged from the center of the spindle to either of the two poles at opposite ends of the spindle, such that by the end of the process each pole contains the appropriate chromosomes for each daughter cell and the separation is complete. This process is controlled by the centrosomes, one of which sits at each pole of the spindle. At the end of cell division, each daughter cell receives the chromosomes and centrosome from one of the spindle poles. Thus, the centrosome must replicate before another round of cell division can be completed. This project will use modern molecular and cellular biology approaches, including the use of yeast mutants defective in centrosome replication, to understand how centrosomes replicate and function.