The rockefeller university

Event Details

Type

Friday Lecture Series

Speaker(s)

Hironori Funabiki, Ph.D., associate professor, Laboratory of Chromosome and Cell Biology, The Rockefeller University

Speaker bio(s)

Accurate chromosome segregation to dividing cells is essential to the continuity of life. Compromising this process results in birth defects and drives tumorigenesis. To accomplish equal segregation, chromosomes assemble microtubule fibers during mitosis to build a bipolar spindle, which pulls sister chromatids apart. After chromosome segregation, the spindle disintegrates and chromosomes begin to recruit components of the nuclear envelope. Formation of the nucleus is essential to support DNA replication and transcription. How can chromosomes choose to build the spindle in mitosis and the nucleus in interphase? Dr. Funabiki's lab has unveiled a cascade of protein phosphorylation, involving phosphorylated histone H3 on mitotic chromosomes, which generates a spatiotemporal cue for this process. In addition, they identified a key phospho-dependent switch on a nucleosome-binding protein that is essential for recruiting critical nuclear envelope components. Surprisingly, Dr. Funabiki's lab also discovered a novel chromosome-bound inhibitor of microtubule assembly that supports formation of a nucleus with the proper size and shape. Thus, formation of the nucleus does not simply rely on recruitment of envelope components to chromosomes, but requires chromosome-dependent regulation of microtubule dynamics.

Dr. Funabiki received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1990 and his Ph.D. in cell biology in 1995, both from Kyoto University in Japan. From 1996 until 2000 he worked as a postdoc in the physiology department at the University of California, San Francisco, and then at Harvard University as a postdoc in molecular and cellular biology. He came to Rockefeller as an assistant professor and head of the Laboratory of Chromosome and Cell Biology in 2002 and was promoted to associate professor in 2007.

Dr. Funabiki received the Alexandrine and Alexander L. Sinsheimer Fund Scholar Award and the Irma T. Hirschl/Monique Weill-Caulier Trust Research Award in 2003. He received the Searle Scholar Award from the Chicago Community Trust in 2002. He was a special fellow of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society from 1999 to 2002 and a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fellow from 1996 to 1999.

 

Open to

Public

Reception

Refreshments, 3:15 p.m. - 3:45 p.m., Abby Lounge

Contact

Alena Powell

Phone

(212) 327-7745

Sponsor

Alena Powell
(212) 327-7745
apowell@rockefeller.edu