4th HKU-Pasteur Cell Biology Course: Cell Division Reveals its Secrets

For the 4th HKU-Pasteur Cell Biology Course, Arnaud ECHARD and Mickaël MACHICOANE (Institut Pasteur) and Chuanhai FU (HKU) have prepared exciting practical courses on cell division, and in particular cytokinesis, spindle assembly, and chromosome dynamics.

With Chuanhai, students will dissect the molecular machanisms of spindle and chromosome dynamics in the three mitosis subphase: prophase, metaphase and anaphase B. They will try to understand how different types of kinesins coordinate to orchestrate mitotic spindle dynamics using the fission yeast as a model organism to examine mitotic dynamics in cells laking different types of kinesins by time lapse live-cell imaging (Fu et al, Dev Cell 2009).

With Arnaud and Mickaël, students will try to understand how the dynamics of the cytoskeletons during mitosis in animal cells contribute to proper spindle orientation and cytokinesis. In particular, students will investigate the role of:

• Microtubule and Actin cytoskeletons in spindle orientation using micropatterned cells (Théry et al. Nat Cell Biol 2005, Théry et al. Cell Motil Cytoskeleton 2006, Théry et al. Nature 2007, Mitsushima et al. J Biol Cell 2010, Fink J et al. Nat Cell Biol 2011);

• Myosin II in cytokinesis and in Golgi dynamics during interphase using Myosin II inhibitors (Miserey-Lenkei et Nat Cell Biol 2010).