Michael Lampson,
Ph. D.

Assistant Professor of Biology
Ph.D. Cornell University, Weill Medical College, 2002

204-I Carolyn Lynch Laboratory
Department of Biology
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA

V	+1 215 746.3040
F	+1 215 898.8780
E	lampson@sas.upenn.edu

cell division, intracellular signaling

Our research focuses on molecular mechanisms that maintain genomic integrity during cell division. The replicated chromosomes are physically segregated at each division to create two genetically identical daughter cells. Segregation errors lead to loss or gain of whole chromosomes in the daughter cells, or aneuploidy, which is strongly associated with human cancer and developmental disease. A complex and highly dynamic cellular machinery ensures accurate chromosome segregation, with many events occurring on minute or second timescales. While many of the key components have been identified, we now face the challenge of understanding how the system is controlled. Using high resolution light microscopy, combined with molecular perturbations introduced by RNAi or with small molecule inhibitors, we will examine key processes in cell division in real time in the context of living mammalian cells. Mitotic kinases are critical for the regulation of these processes, and we are developing probes based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) to examine kinase signaling networks at specific intracellular structures, such as centromeres and spindle poles, in living cells.

A core project in the lab is to examine signaling at the centromere, the site on each chromosome that attaches to the mitotic spindle. Accurate chromosome segregation requires that each replicated chromosome pair attaches to spindle microtubules in the correct configuration (see figure) so that sister chromosomes are pulled in opposite directions at anaphase. Attachment errors must be (1) detected, to activate the spindle checkpoint, and (2) corrected before anaphase onset. Both of these processes require that correct and incorrect attachments be distinguished. We will test the hypothesis that this distinction is made through differential signaling by mitotic kinases at individual centromeres. Starting with this project, we hope to develop models for site-specific signaling neworks that control critical processes in cell division.

selected publications

Fuller, B.G., Lampson, M.A., Foley, E.A., Rosasco-Nitcher, S., Le, K.V., Tobelman, P., Brautigan, D.L., Stukenberg, P.T., and Kapoor, T.M. (2008).  Midzone Activation of Aurora B in Anaphase Produces an Intracellular Phosphorylation Gradient.  Nature 453: 1132-6.

Kapoor, T.M., Lampson, M.A., Hergert, P., Cameron, L., Cimini, D., Salmon, E.D., McEwen B.F., and Khodjakov, A. (2006) Chromosomes can congress to the metaphase plate prior to bi-orientation. Science 311: 388-91.

Lampson, M.A. and Kapoor, T.M. (2006) Unraveling cell division mechanisms with small-molecule inhibitors. Nature Chemical Biology 2: 19-27.

Lampson, M.A. and Kapoor, T.M. (2005) The human mitotic checkpoint protein BubR1 regulates chromosome-spindle attachments. Nature Cell Biology 7: 93-8.

Lampson, M.A., Renduchitala, K., Khodjakov, A., and Kapoor, T.M. (2004) Correcting improper chromosome–spindle attachments during cell division. Nature Cell Biology 6: 232-7.