We are a group of scientists in the Bellini Building, roaming about on the 2nd floor, or toiling at a bench, or working away in front of a computer or the confocal, or drinking an expresso. Yeah, a herd of nerds- that might be the best way to describe us. Most of us are biologists, some are programmers, some are inclined to biophysics or math. Most of us are a bit of everything.

Face reality- we can't know everything

Beck really nailed the concept that we make do with what we have, because we have to, in his song "Missing" (Guero)

“something always takes the place of missing pieces you can take and put together even though you know there's something missing.”

Yes, there is uncertainty. Luckily budding yeast provides a relatively simple system to study mitosis- a process for which we still have a great deal to learn. Yeast cells have a very economical cytoskeleton. One spindle microtubule is sufficient to segregate a sister chromatid during anaphase. One cytoplasmic microtubule can position the metaphase spindle with respect to the future plane of cell division. Simple system, plus facile genetics, facilitates high resolution analysis of mitosis.
We are most interested in:

• How microtubules and their associated proteins contribute to the successful execution of mitosis; from spindle formation to the completion of anaphase
• The control systems that govern microtubule function during the cell cycle
• For relevant proteins- e.g. proteins that influence the dynamic properties of microtubules- the relationship between a protein's structure and its function

We use a few approaches for every problem, as one never seems to be enough:

• Biochemistry, cell biology and molecular genetics
• High resolution (spatial, temporal) confocal microscopy
• Quantitative analysis of image data
• Genome scale assays, functional analysis
• Modeling and simulation

Latest Publication

Rauch, A.* E Nazarova* and J Vogel. Analysis of microtubules in budding yeast. in: ”Microtubules in vivo” Editors P. Tran and L. Cassemeris. Methods in Cell Biology 97, 277-306 (2010) *equal contribution.

We are located in rooms 269 (Jackie's office) and 273 (Vogel lab) of the:
Bellini Pavillion, Life Sciences Complex
McGill University
3649 Promenade Sir William Osler
Montreal QC H3G 0B1
Additional contact information is provided on the People page