Cheeseman Lab

Leah Bury  is a postdoc in the lab of Whitehead Member Iain Cheeseman, where her research is focused on understanding transcription of DNA into RNA at the centromere, a region of the chromosome important in cell division.

Whitehead researchers unravel fundamental molecular machinery that propels chromosome movement

The Constitutive Centromere-Associated Network (CCAN) plays a foundational role in the machine that directs chromosome segregation during cell division. On the left is a model of the complete machine (the kinetochore) attached to the microtubule that provides the power for chromosome segregation. The right side depicts the direct interactions between CCAN sub-complexes based on Whitehead scientists’ research as viewed from above the CENP-A nucleosome, either occuring on a single nucleosome (top) or or between two nucleosomes (bottom).”

The protein CENP-A, which is integrated into human DNA at the centromere on each chromosome, has a vital role in cell division. Work from Whitehead Institute Member Iain Cheeseman’s lab describes how the vital and tightly controlled replenishment of CENP-A progresses.

For more than 125 years, scientists have been peering through microscopes, carefully watching cells divide. Until now, however, none has actually seen how cells manage to divide precisely into two equally-sized daughter cells during mitosis. Such perfect division depends on the position of the mitotic spindle (chromosomes, microtubules, and spindle poles) within the cell, and it’s now clear that human cells employ two specific mechanisms during the portion of division known as anaphase to correct mitotic spindle positioning.

Although the process of mitotic cell division has been studied intensely for more than 50 years, Whitehead Institute researchers have only now solved the mystery of how cells correctly align their chromosomes during symmetric mitosis.