Regulation of cell growth and division

Animal cell growth and division requires the constant delivery of new proteins and lipids from their site of synthesis in the endoplasmic reticulum to the cell surface. Cell growth and DNA replication in S-phase is followed in M-phase by the ordered segregation of the genetic material into two equivalent sets of chromosomes, then by a cleavage event termed cytokinesis which divides the cell into two such that each part contains one complete set of genetic material (Figure 1). Investigation of these processes and their regulation at a molecular level is therefore important for understanding both normal cell growth and division and how, when cell division fails, the aneuploid cells that contribute to human tumour formation arise. My group is interested in understanding how human cells establish and regulate the complex three-dimensional structures necessary for cell growth and division. To do this we have focussed our work on two areas central to these processes: (i) protein traffic and the function of the key organelle of the secretory pathway, the Golgi apparatus; and (ii) the function of the central spindle in protein trafficking events that lead to cytokinesis.