Rob Cross | Director

My colleagues and I are interested in mechanochemical coupling in molecular motors, and more generally in mechanotransduction and the principles and possibilities of motorised molecular self-organisation in biological systems and in synthetic nanosystems. We focus specifically on the mechanochemistry of kinesins and microtubules. We develop our own optical microscopes, in particular for single molecule mechanics.
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Andrew McAinsh | Associate Professor

Our overall aim is to understand how the coupled mechanical system of chromosomes, kinetochores, spindle poles, microtubules and molecular motors are able to self-organize the human mitotic spindle and accurately segregate sister chromatids. We do this by using cell biology and by developing new live-cell microscope-based assays and in vitro assays using purified protein components.

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Anne Straube | Assistant Professor

We want to understand the mechanochemical processes underlying directional cell migration and differentiation. We focus on the mechanisms that generate specific microtubule arrays and study the dynamic interactions of microtubules with the cell cortex during cell shape changes.
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Nick Carter | Senior Research Fellow

We recently showed using optical trapping microscopy that kinesin-1 can walk backwards under load. Current work is aimed at understanding the mechanism of back-stepping.
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Masanori Mishima | Associate Professor

Cytokinesis is essential for cell proliferation. Its failure leads to aneuploidy, which is often associated with cancer. In spite of its importance, the molecular mechanism of cytokinesis has not yet been fully clarified. We would like to understand cytokinesis more fully, in terms of how molecular machines assemble dynamically.
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