CAREER: Physical Aspects of Spindle Self-Organization

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Under this CAREER award the PI will develop and test general theories of cytoskeletal organization, and thereby obtain an understanding of the architecture and dynamics of the metaphase spindle. The project will use fluorescence and polarized light microscopy, in conjunction with magnetic tweezers and biochemical approaches, to study the spindle's internal fluctuations, structure, and response to perturbations. The results of these quantitative experiments will be compared with predictions from coarse-grained models of cytoskeletal behavior. The educational component of the project will bridge the gap between physical scientists and biologists. This will be accomplished by promoting interdisciplinary research, developing an undergraduate course to teach cell biology to physicists and engineers, the creation of an interdisciplinary, graduate level, project based laboratory class, and will incorporate basic quantitative methods into biology education at the high school level.