Cell Cycle and Signaling

We are interested in understanding how cell division is controlled, and more specifically how before and during mitosis a number of signaling modules reorganize cellular elements with the objective of building the spindle and correctly segregating the duplicated chromosomes into two daughter cells (evidently quite an important process -think cell death, disease and mayhem in general if things go wrong with it). The microtubule cytoskeleton, associated proteins including molecular motors and the centrosomes (in animal cells) are central to this and thus we pay special attention to them. We are focused on studying the NIMA-family kinases Nek9, Nek6 and Nek7. We have shown that during G2/M Nek9 is activated at centrosomes and then it binds and activates the highly similar Nek6 and Nek7. Once active the three kinases can modify different substrates, controlling their localization and/or function. We use genetically modified cells and animals to investigate the importance of this for bot