Straube Lab

Research Summary

The ability to invade neighbouring tissues and to spread to organs distant from their origin is the most deadly feature of cancer cells. However, none of the currently available drugs specifically targets cancer metastasis. We aim to understand the mechanochemical processes underlying cell migration and differentiation in order to feed new knowledge into the drug-development pathway.

Microtubules are essential for chromosome segregation, intracellular transport, positioning of organelles, directed cell migration and differentiation. All these processes require the organization of microtubules into arrays with different geometry and density and the proper regulation of dynamics and interactions at the microtubule ends. My lab focuses on the mechanisms that generate specific microtubule arrays in polarized cells and on the dynamic interactions of microtubule tips at the cell cortex during cell shape changes and migration.

Selected Publications

Hawkins, T.L., Sept, D., Mogessie, B., Straube, A. and Ross, J.L. (2013) Mechanical Properties of Doubly-Stabilized Microtubule Filaments. Biophys J. 104:1517-28 Pubmed

Theisen, U., Straube, E. and Straube, A. (2012) Directional persistence of migrating cells requires Kif1C-mediated stabilisation of trailing adhesions. Dev Cell. 23:1153-66 Pubmed

Samora, C.P., Mogessie, B., Conway, L., Ross, J.L., Straube, A. and McAinsh, A.D. (2011) MAP4 and CLASP1 operate as a safety mechanism to maintain a stable spindle position in mitosis. Nat Cell Biol. 13:1040-50 Pubmed

McAinsh, A.D. and Straube, A. (2011) Spindle centricity. Cell Cycle. 10:3989-91 Pubmed

Kaverina, I. and Straube, A. (2011) Regulation of cell migration by dynamic microtubules. Semin Cell Dev Biol. 22:968-74 Pubmed

Straube, A. (2011) How to measure microtubule dynamics? Methods Mol Biol. 777:1-14 Pubmed

Lab Members and Projects

	Daniel Roth \| Research Assistant EB proteins are the master integrators of the plus tip network. Together with Anne, I study microtubule affinity mutants of EB1 and EB3 to understand how these proteins bind to microtubule and how their direct effect on microtubule dynamics is determined. I am also the lab's cloning machine, CMCB's movie director and co-organiser of the chalk talk series.
	Ben Fitton \| PhD Student MOAC DTC (EPSRC) Microtubule dynamics is characterised by phases of continuous growth and shrinkage and stochastic switches between these phases. I study the transitions between growth and shrinkage phases, catastrophes and rescues, in detail using in vitro reconstitution of microtubule assembly/disassembly in the presence of EB proteins to detect the GTP cap.
	Rose Gostner \| IAS Postdoctoral Research Fellow \| Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Warwick I have a PhD in Computer Science and experience as a software developer with a specialty in human-computer interaction. I will start my fellowship in October 2013. My aim is to develop a novel human-computer interface to explore and analyse mathematical models of microtubule dynamics regulation for use in research and education
	Sam Jefferyes \| PhD Systems Biology DTC (BBSRC) Migrating cells adopt a variety of different shapes, which are determined by the cytoskeleton in response to the extracellular substrate. I model cell shapes and use the information to correlate shape with migrational behaviour. I will exploit information about shape and shape changes to develop cell tracking algorithms that allow the robust detection of cell contact events and their outcomes, create synthetic data of migration strategies in 2D and 3D and compare these with experimental data
	Alice Bachmann\| PhD After injuries, blood vessel cells close to the injury adopt a synthetic state to induce vascular repair. This synthetic state is accompanied by the formation of podosomes, actin-rich structure implicated in cell adhesion, cell migration and remodeling of the extracellular matrix surrounding cells. As a PhD student, I am interested in the implication of the Kif1C kinesin in the formation and turnover of podosomes.