Aaron Straight
Academic Appointments
- Associate Professor, Biochemistry
- Member, Bio-X
- Member, Stanford Cancer Institute
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Current Research Interests
Our goal is to understand how chromosomes are faithfully transmitted during cell division. The laboratory studies the structure and biology of chromosomes and the mechanisms of chromosome segregation during mitosis. The primary site for chromosomal interaction with the mitotic spindle is a specialized region of the chromosome called the kinetochore. We are studying how the position of the kinetochore is determined along the length of the chromosome, how kinetochores are assembled, and how kinetochores are activated to bind microtubules and produce forces for chromosome segregation. We use digital microscopy to extract quantitative information about the dynamics of chromosomes in living cells, biochemical reconstitution to assemble kinetochores in vitro, and genetics to manipulate the chromosome segregation process in order to study how chromosome-distribution systems function in eukaryotes.
Publications
- CENP-C recruits M18BP1 to centromeres to promote CENP-A chromatin assembly. J Cell Biol. 2011; (6): 855-71
- Dynamics of CENP-N kinetochore binding during the cell cycle. J Cell Sci. 2011; (Pt 22): 3871-83
- In vitro centromere and kinetochore assembly on defined chromatin templates. Nature. 2011; (7364): 354-8
- Dual recognition of CENP-A nucleosomes is required for centromere assembly. J Cell Biol. 2010; (7): 1143-55
- Image analysis benchmarking methods for high-content screen design. J Microsc. 2010; (2): 145-61
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