报告题目：Close Encounters of the First Kind: How Chromosomes Capture Microtubules in Mitosis
报告人：Geert Kops 教授
主持人：汪方炜 教授
时 间：2018年6月12日（周二）下午4点
地 点：纳米楼457报告厅
报告人简介：
Current positions
2017-present, Senior group leader and Chief Scientific Officer, Oncode Institute
2015-present, Senior group leader, Hubrecht Institute
2011-present, Professor, Molecular Tumor Cell Biology, UMC Utrecht
Education
1997-2001, PhD (cum laude) from Utrecht University
1992-1997, MSc in Biology at the Utrecht University
Research interest & past achievements
Prof.Kops aims to understand the molecular principles of chromosome segregation and the impact of errors in this process on genome integrity and cancer development. For this, He uses state-of-the-art technologies in molecular and chemical cell biology, imaging, proteomics, and organoid/tissue cultures. His recent work focused on the main cell cycle checkpoint in mitosis (the SAC) and the formation of correct chromosome-spindle interactions. He identified a mechanism for how the SAC ‘senses’ attachment of chromosomes to spindle microtubules (e.g. Hiruma et al., Science 2015), molecular mechanisms for SAC activation and silencing at kinetochores (e.g. Vleugel et al., Mol Cell 2015; Nijenhuis et al., Nat Cell Biol 2014), and phosphatase-kinase balances that ensure stabilization of correct kinetochore-spindle interactions (e.g. Suijkerbuijk et al., Dev Cell 2012). This work was made possible by ERC and VICI awards. The work on the molecular underpinnings of kinetochore function inspired, among other, studies on the diversity and evolution of kinetochores in eukaryotes (e.g. Tromer et al., Genome Biol Evol 2015, van Hooff et al., EMBO Rep 2017), and a sabbatical research year at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center (Seattle, USA). His cancer research effort were also directly inspired by his molecular mechanistic studies, and having both research directions in the lab creates substantial synergy: He identified a novel Wilms tumor predisposition gene (Yost et al., Nat Genet 2017), and resolved when and how chromosomal instability arises during intestinal cancer progression (in coll. With Clevers lab: Drost et al., Nature 2015).
