We're under construction here, so here's the short form: We're interested in chromosome movement, during mitosis and within the nucleus. One of the things we're doing is developing GFP-based probes for chromosome research. Using a centromere DNA binding protein, CENP-B, we've developed a sequence-specific fluorescent DNA binding protein that labels centromeric satellite DNA sequences in living cells. In collaboration with the Wahl lab at the Salk Institute, we have developed a GFP-Histone H2B fusion that labels the entire chromosome for extremely sensitive visualization of chromatin organization in vivo. There are a bunch of movies and images related to this work that are the raison d'etre for this web page. So while I'm learning how to do HTML stuff, take a look at some of these:

Time Lapse movies - centromere and chromosome dynamics in living human cells

• Interphase centromere distribution in a living human cell labeled with CENP-B-GFP. 3D reconstruction/rotation - 2.2 Mb
• 15 minutes in the life of an average field of U2OS cells. Time lapse - 7.5 Mb
• Centromere dynamics during mitosis - metaphase oscillations, stretching, anaphase. Time lapse - 0.8 Mb
• Centromeres populate the forming nucleus distributing isometrically during telophase. Time lapse - 2.1 Mb
• Double minute chromosomes distributing asymmetrically during anaphase in a colorectal carcinoma cell line. 3D reconstruction/rotation - 6.1 Mb
• Deconvolution microsocopy complements the confocal microscope for high resolution 3-dimensional imaging. 3D reconstruction/rotation - 2.3 Mb

Research Projects

CENP-A - Assembly and function of centromeric chromatin and the kinetochore.

CENP-B - Centromere dynamics during the cell cycle.