Timothy Mitchison

Harvard Medical School, Department of Systems Biology
Alpert Building, Room 541B
200 Longwood Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
Tel: 617-432-3805
Email: timothy_mitchison@hms.harvard.edu

Website:

https://mitchison.hms.harvard.edu/ 
Lab Size: Between 10 and 15

Summary

We work on fundamental questions of how cells are spatially organized applied problems in pharmacology and drug development. We ask how systems comprising microtubules, binding proteins and motors self-organize to promote cell division in frog eggs using microscopy and biochemistry. We work on the pharmacology of microtubule-targeting drugs, and to development new drug that combat cancer and inflammation by modulating innate immunity.

The Mitchison group has long been interested in fundamental mechanisms by which cells use for physically organization and movement. Our main focus is on dynamic organization of the microtubule cytoskeleton, in particular during cell division. We use eggs of the frog Xenopus laevis as a model to study this problem and also as an example of an extremely large cell, where the scaling gap between molecular and cellular processes becomes extreme. We analyze microtubule-based organizing mechanisms by microscopy, image analysis and biochemistry, often taking advantage of egg extracts that reconstitute complex processes ex vivo. In the pharmacology area we are working on how microtubule- and mitosis-targeting drugs kill cancer cells, in particular how the important anti-cancer drug taxol works to promote tumor regression in man. We are also developing small molecules that activate tumor-resident macrophages by mimicking viral infection, and cause an innate immune attack of the cancer.