Seminar Series in Quantitative Life Sciences and Medicine

"Born that way: The role of initial state in the formation, stability and function of the mitotic spindle"

Jackie Vogel, McGill Univeristy
Tuesday October 2, 12-1pm
McIntyre Building, Room 1027

Abstract: The process of forming a bipolar spindle requires the coordination of force generating and microtubule crosslinking proteins with the dynamical properties of microtubules to first separate duplicated spindle poles and subsequently to execute chromosome attachment and bio-orientation. The process of spindle assembly has been studied extensively in the unicellular fungus budding yeast, a unicellular eukaryote. This organism has a spindle architecture that is economical and yet shares design features of more complex spindles in animal cells. In this talk, I will describe our biophysical analysis of how the initial state of a monopolar spindle contributes to the fast, switch-like and irreversible formation of a bipolar spindle as well as the stability of new spindles.