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Faithful transmission of the genetic material to daughter cells is key to maintain genomic integrity at a cellular and organismal level. For this to happen proper chromosome condensation and segregation must occur in a controlled and coordinated manner. Chromosome segregation errors may potentially lead to inheritable abnormalities with severe consequences. Also, aneuploidy and chromosome instability, which arise from chromosomal aberrations, are hallmarks of cancer cells. It is therefore very important to understand mechanisms governing formation of chromosomes and their accurate segregation during cell division.

Properly functioning kinetochores, very large multiprotein complexes formed on mitotic centromeres, are a prerequisite for correct chromosome segregation. They constitute a dynamic but in the same time very robust connection between chromosomes and microtubules of the mitotic spindle. I study kinetochores’ composition and the regulation of their assembly in early mitosis. I am interested in how protein interaction networks respond to a constantly changing environment at the chromosome-microtubule interface. Also, my studies address a general question of how kinetochore signalling is embedded in and connected to other pathways regulating cell division and more broadly, cell physiology. To gain insight into these fundamental processes I employ integrated multi-disciplinary approach, which uses biochemistry, structural biology, cell biology and proteomics methodologies. I hope that this multi-angle, systemic and collaborative strategy is going to give a deeper and more complete understanding of the kinetochore function in health and disease.