Research

For details of the research interests of individual group members, please see People. In brief our expertise lies in the following areas:

Subject areas
  • Chromosome segregation in mitosis
  • Chromosome biology of oocytes
  • Molecular basis of meiotic chromosome synapsis
  • Structure and function of cyclin-dependent protein kinases and histone kinases
  • Cyclin-dependent kinases in control of the cell cycle and initiation of transcription
  • Histone modifications during cell division
  • Epigenetic inheritance through cell division
  • Mitotic checkpoint signalling
  • Cell polarity and asymmetric cell division of embryos
  • Telomeres, DNA replication and repair
 Technical approaches
  • Live and fixed cell fluorescence microscopy
  • Cell microinjection
  • Cell culture and transfection
  • Recombinant protein expression and purification
  • Biochemistry and biophysics
  • X-ray crystallography
  • Structure-aided drug design
  • Genetic, yeast two-hybrid, RNAi and small molecule screens
 Model systems
  • In vitro reconstitution
  • Cultured mammalian cells
  • Mouse and human oocytes
  • C. elegans embryos
  • S. cerevisiae (budding yeast)
  • Drosophila embryos and neuroblasts