UQ Biomedical Sciences Seminar Professor Jan Karlseder
Event Details
- Date:
- Thursday, 09 April 2015
- Time:
- 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
- Room:
- Rm360
- UQ Location:
- Physiology Lecture Theatres (St Lucia)
- URL:
- http://www.uq.edu.au/sbms/thurs-9th-april-prof-jan-karlseder-salk-institute-biological-studies-telomere-dynamics-how-tiny
- Event category(s):
Event Contact
- Name:
- Dr Sean Millard
- Phone:
- 51299
- Email:
- s.millard@uq.edu.au
- Org. Unit:
- Biomedical Sciences
Event Description
- Full Description:
- SBMS Seminar
Professor Jan Karlseder
Molecular and Cellular Biology Dept
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies
La Jolla, California, USA
Telomere dynamics: How the tiny chromosome ends control complex cellular processes
Telomeres are the natural ends of linear chromosomes. In humans they consist of approximately 15kb of TTAGGG repeats and are bound by specific protein complexes. Every time a cell divides the telomeres get shorter. Once they become critically short they signal to the cell, which in turn stops to divide or dies. Thereby telomeres represent a powerful cellular clock that determines how often our cells can divide. On the other hand, tumor cells activate mechanisms that maintain telomere length, endowing cancers with immortality. Telomeres also protect chromosome ends from being recognized as damaged DNA, thereby maintaining genome stability and preventing chromosome fusion.
Recently we discovered that telomeres also control the cell division process, and that telomere deprotection in mitosis represents a novel checkpoint that measures how long cells stay in mitosis. When mitosis duration becomes too long, telomeres initiate a program that leads to cell death, thereby eliminating cells from the population that cannot execute the cell division process properly. This has strong implications on cancer treatment with mitotic inhibitors, such as Taxol/Paclitaxel and explains the way such drugs function, but also raises concerns about genome instability upon chemotherapy. Today I will discuss the pathway and implications of the complex interplay between telomeres and the cell division machinery.
Directions to UQ
- Google Map:
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- Directions:
- St Lucia Campus | Gatton campus.
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