Mitotic Mechanisms and Chromosome Dynamics

PAUL S. MADDOX , Ph.D.

• Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal
• Canada Research Chair in Cell Division and Chromosomal Organization,

In his research program at IRIC, Dr. Maddox is using high resolution light microscopy based techniques to understand how the duplicated genome is faithfully transmitted to daughter cells. His work relies on the use of human cells as well as the nematode worm C. elegans as a model system. The regions of the genome which attach to the segregation machinery are called “centromeres”. Dr Maddox’s team utilizes state-of-the-art visualization techniques to understand, at the most basic level, how the proper site in the DNA is chosen to be the centromere. The work in Dr. Maddox’s laboratory is aimed at identifying new cellular factors required for this process.

Impact and Clinical Relevance

Almost all known regulatory and mechanical aspects of cell division are the same between C. elegans and humans. As a testament to the medical relevance of C. elegans, three Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine have been awarded for work done with this model system. The basic principles which govern cell division are the same in both worm cells and human cells, so discoveries from the worm will help us understand how errors in cell division compromise human health by causing cancer.

Given their universal importance in normal cell growth/division (defects in spindle function lead to loss of heterozygosity and cancerous transformation) and proven potential as chemotherapy targets, microtubules and their regulation are of broad interest and significance.  The work in the Maddox lab exploits the C. elegans model for gene discovery and translates these findings into human cells for specific studies on cell growth.  Identification and characterization of new factors required for human cell growth will lead to new targets which would be ideal for chemotherapies that will explicitly affect rapidly dividing cells, limiting side effects such as those caused by current therapies.

T + 514 343.7894
F + 514 343.6843
paul.maddox@umontreal.ca