In the Weaver lab, we are interested in aneuploidy, an abnormal number of chromosomes, and chromosomal instability (CIN), the rate of continuous chromosomal gains or losses. Aneuploidy and mitotic defects that cause CIN have been recognized as hallmarks of cancer since the early 1900s. Our lab focuses on understanding how chromosome segregation becomes misregulated in cancers, how various cancer treatments affect mitosis, and the consequences of specific chromosome segregation errors on tumor promotion, suppression and therapeutic response.
News
Common Chemotherapy Drugs Work by Interfering with Mitosis Not Stopping It
Highlight piece about recent work in the Weaver Lab
Common chemotherapy drugs don’t work like doctors thought, with big implications for drug discovery
A new study from the Weaver Lab suggests that chemotherapy may not be reaching its full potential, in part because researchers and doctors have long misunderstood how some of the most common cancer drugs actually …
Paclitaxel Induces Cell Death via Chromosome Missegregation
Clinically relevant doses of paclitaxel induce chromosome missegregation, not mitotic arrest.
With Taxol, chromosomes divide and get conquered
New mechanism discovered for decades-old cancer drug.
Researchers probe cell division defects to gain insight into cancer
From bugs to plants to animals, for all living things to grow they must create more cells. To do so, each existing cell, whether in an embryo or an adult, receives cues to copy its chromosomes — large pieces of DNA that contain each cell’s entire genetic code. In a carefully and elegantly controlled process, each cell then divides into two.
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