Mechanism and regulation of chromosome replication

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Our research is trying to find out how we pass on the right number of chromosomes to our children. Mistakes in this process are very common in humans and can cause miscarriage and Down's Syndrome. We know that these mistakes are more common in a mother’s eggs than in a father’s sperm, and are much more common in eggs of older mothers. We also know that genetic mutations can cause chromosome behaviour in developing eggs and sperm to be so severely affected that people with these mutations are infertile.The behaviour of the chromosomes in developing eggs and sperm is difficult to study in humans, therefore we will create new genetically modified mice to help us study why the wrong number of chromosomes are often passed on to our children and how this is affected by ageing. We will also create new genetically modified mice to help us understand the type of mutations that can affect chromosome behaviour in developing eggs and sperm severely enough to cause infertility. We hope that this research will help us develop future approaches to improve chromosome behaviour in developing sperm and eggs and reduce the amount of genetic disease passed on to our children.