The Kwok Lab aims to understand the molecular mechanisms of cytoskeleton dynamics and cell division.

Research theme

The survival and development of living organisms depend on a number of incalculable cell divisions. In humans, that number can even reach hundreds of trillions of divisions.

Cell division unfolds in a series of steps with a major goal to partition our genetic material equally into two daughter cells. This task is carried out by a wide range of molecules that orchestrate, among other things, the assembly of a machine we call the “mitotic spindle” to segregate the chromosomes.

Benjamin Kwok’s team seeks to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the faithful segregation of genetic material, with a particular focus on the regulation of the microtubule-based cytoskeletal polymer networks. Uncontrolled cell division is one of the defining features of cancer. The work carried out by Benjamin Kwok and his team hopes to contribute to the development of improved chemotherapeutic strategies to fight the devastating disease.

Research objectives

The Chemical Biology of Cell Division Research Unit focuses on elucidating the molecular mechanisms by which kinesin motors and other microtubule-associated proteins contribute to mitotic spindle assembly, and developing small molecule chemical tools that can be used in biomedical research and potentially as anti-cancer chemotherapeutics.

The team uses a multi-disciplinary approach that combines protein biochemistry, cell biology and high resolution microscopy to study spindle formation in cultured vertebrate cells and in in vitro reconstitution assays.