Scott C. Schuyler

Appointments：Associate professor

Lab：Yeast biochemistry& genetics lab

Education：Ph.D.

School/Nation：Harvard University/USA

Tel: (03)211-8800 ext:3596

E-mail: schuyler@mail.cgu.edu.tw

Research website: https://scs03596.wixsite.com/scslab

研究室現有： 博士後研究員  人

博士班研究生    人

碩士班研究生  人

專任研究助理  4 人

大學部專題生    人

Mitotic Spindle Checkpoint

The mitotic spindle checkpoint prevents chromosome loss.  I want to understand how this checkpoint regulates chromosome segregation during eukaryotic cell division, primarily by studying how the spindle checkpoint inhibits the cell cycle regulator the Anaphase-Promoting Complex (APC).  Yeast genetics, cell biology, and biochemistry in combination are powerful tools for exploring the molecular roles of protein complexes.  In the lab, I use my training in these fields to develop biochemical, cell biological and genetic approaches to ask how the mitotic spindle checkpoint functions to inhibit APC.

One of the most successful chemotherapeutic agents has been mitotic poisons, such as microtubule poisons like paclitaxel.  Although the exact cellular mechanisms leading to cancer cell death are unclear, mitotic poisons are thought to act by creating a delay in mitosis, which in turn leads to cells undergoing apoptosis. 

Cancer cells may not respond to mitotic poison-based treatments in the clinic, or may develop resistance to the therapy.  Although the cellular mechanisms explaining mitotic poison resistance in each cancer type and each cancer patient remains unclear, ultimately the mitotic poison resistance allows the cancer cells to escape the delay in cell cycle progression in mitosis and under go ‘mitotic slippage’, and re-enter the cell cycle rather than undergoing apoptotic cell death.