My project focuses on the formation and regulation of the mitotic spindle. Both motor and static cross-linking proteins have been shown to be involved in the formation of focused spindle poles. We have shown that the motor driven activities associated with NuMA/dynein and HSET are not required for pole focusing if sustained force from kinetochores is inhibited by depletion of specific kinetochore proteins such as Nuf2. Instead, in the absence of force generated by kinetochores and pole focusing motors, pole organization is dependent on the static microtubule cross-linker TPX2 as it cross-links spindle microtubules to centrosome nucleated asters.
