Jan Skotheim

My overarching goal is to understand how cell growth triggers cell division. Linking growth to division is important because it allows cells to maintain a specific size range to best perform their physiological functions. For example, red blood cells must be small enough to flow through small capillaries, whereas macrophages must be large enough to engulf pathogens. In addition to being important for normal cell and tissue physiology, the link between growth and division is misregulated in cancer.

Today, thanks to decades of research into the question of how cells control division, we have an extensive, likely nearly complete parts-list of key regulatory proteins. Deletion, inhibition, or over-expression of these proteins often results in changes to cell size. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms for how growth triggers division are not understood.  How do the regulatory proteins work together to produce a biochemical activity reflecting cell size or growth? Since we now have most of the parts, the next step to solving this fundamental question is to better understand how they work together.