Molecular motors laboratory

Rob Cross PhD - Group Leader

Maria Alonso BSc
Nick Carter PhD
Doug Drummond PhD
Dana Gheorghe PhD
Frauke Hussmann BSc
Kuniyoshi Kaseda PhD
Miho Katsuki PhD
 

We are moving!

The Cross lab is moving, together with the McAinsh and Straube labs, to Warwick Medical School, to found a new Centre for Mechanochemical Cell Biology. We will move into temporary space at Warwick at the start of February 2010, and subsequently move into a new building, which we are currently designing. Our new centre will address problems in the cell biology and biophysics of motorized self-organization in cells.

More soon!!

For more information please visit our laboratory website

Molecular motors are nanometre-scale walking machines, able to pick up and carry cellular components along trackways to particular locations in the cell. Much of the self-organising power of cells derives from this ability to harness molecular motors to arrange and re-arrange the cell contents.

We are interested in the general principles of motorised molecular self-organisation, and specifically in the detailed mechanical mechanisms by which molecular motors interact with their tracks.

Our own work concentrates predominantly on kinesins, a set of motors that interact with microtubules, and on tubulin, the building block of microtubules.

We have discovered a number of key aspects of the mechanism by which kinesins interact with microtubules. Much more remains to be discovered.

Our work on the biophysical cell biology of molecular motors is highly relevant to cancer medicine.  Kinesins and microtubules play pivotal roles in cell division. Several current anti-cancer drugs work by targetting microtubules, and new drugs are under development that target kinesins. By elucidating molecular mechanisms, we can learn how existing cancer drugs work, and discover avenues to new ones.

 

Selected references:

Braun, M., Drummond, D.R., Cross, R.A. and McAinsh, A.D.  (2009)
The kinesin-14 Klp2 organizes microtubules into parallel bundles by an ATP-dependent sorting mechanism.
Nature Cell Biol. 11: 724-730.

Alonso, A.C., Drummond, D.R., Kain, S., Hoeng, J., Amos, L.A. and Cross, R.A. (2007)
An ATP-gate controls tubulin binding by the tethered head of kinesin-1.
Science, 316: 120-123.

Carter, N.J. and Cross, R.A. (2005)
Mechanics of the kinesin step.
Nature, 435: 308-312.

Yajima, J. and Cross, R.A. (2005)
A torque component in the kinesin-1 power stroke.
Nature Chemical Biology, 1: 338-341.

Crevel, I.M-T., Alonso, M.C. and Cross, R.A. (2004)
Monastrol stabilises an attached low-friction state of Eg5.
Current Biology, 14: R411-R412.