Multiple centrosomes in tumor cells create the potential for multipolar divisions that can lead to aneuploidy and cell death. Nevertheless, many cancer cells successfully divide because of mechanisms that suppress multipolar mitoses. A genome-wide RNAi screen in Drosophila S2 cells and a secondary analysis in cancer cells defined mechanisms that suppress multipolar mitoses. In addition to prote...

During cell division, the molecular motor Eg5 crosslinks overlapping antiparallel microtubules and pushes them apart to separate mitotic spindle poles. Dynein has been proposed as a direct antagonist of Eg5 at the spindle equator, pulling on antiparallel microtubules and favoring spindle collapse. Some of the experiments supporting this hypothesis relied on endpoint quantifications of spindle p...

This practice-led research project seeks to address the use of New Media in contemporary artistic productions in the field of Performance Art in relation to the current "consumption" of Media in everyday life contexts. The research will be carried out through the analysis of works and the practical exercise of performances that include pre-recorded image and / or live image, as well as video pe...

Introduction This series of meetings (Palazzo, 2002; Stearns & Winey, 1997) began as a joint ASCB/EMBO venture in 1997 with a meeting that was a landmark event, not only because a minor field had grown to fill an entire meeting, but also because key presentations defined the course of the field for years to come. The first biochemical mass spectrometric analysis of the budding yeast spindle pol...

It was the great geochemist Harold Urey who first called attention to peculiar conditions at the poles of the Moon. In his book The Planets: Their Origin and Development, Urey (1952) noted that the spin axis of the Moon was inclined only 1.5 degrees from the normal to the plane of the Moon’s path around the Sun. The consequence of this geometry is that topographic depressions near the poles, wh...

Rho GTPases control fundamental aspects of neutrophil chemotaxis: establishment of front and back and orientation toward the chemoattractant. Two reports in this issue show that activated Cdc42 at the leading edge helps orient the cell's axis in a signaling complex with G beta gamma, PAK1, and PIX alpha; while Rho, activated via G alpha 13, mediates formation of the uropod, which then interacts...

We use the behavioural approach to de®ne and characterize control-lable and uncontrollable poles and zeros of multidimensional (nD) linear systems. We show a strong relationship between controllable poles and zeros and properties of the transfer function matrix, and we give characterizations of uncontrollable poles and zeros, in particular demonstrating that these have an input decoupling prope...

Faithful distribution of the genome requires that sister kinetochores, which assemble on each chromatid during cell division, interact with dynamic microtubules from opposite spindle poles in a configuration called chromosome biorientation. Biorientation produces tension that increases the affinity of kinetochores for microtubules via ill-defined mechanisms. Non-bioriented kinetochore-microtubu...

Regular walking with or without Nordic poles is effective over time at reducing discomfort in individuals with chronic low back pain (LBP). Nordic pole use increases balance and stability, distributes weight through the arms and torso, and decreases loading of the spine and lower limbs. The purpose of this study was to determine if Nordic poles would reduce perceived acute discomfort while self...

Errors during cell division in oocytes and early embryos are linked to birth defects in mammals. Bipolar spindle assembly in early mouse embryos is unique in that three or more acentriolar microtubule-organizing centers (MTOCs) are initially formed and are then clustered into two spindle poles. Using a knockout mouse and live imaging of spindles in embryos, we demonstrate that MTOC clustering d...