DMMC Course MODEL SYSTEMS IN BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH: SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS

1000-1115 Thursday 4 May 2006. UCD Conway Institute Seminar Room 2

Xenopus laevis: using eggs and embryos for cell cycle research
Technical Spotlight: cell cycle extracts
Claire Moran (UCD Conway Institute Xenopus Biology Group headed by Dr Carmel Hensey)

Eggs and embryos from the frog Xenopus laevis are an important model system for studying cell cycle regulation. After fertilization, the early embryo undergoes simple, rapid and synchronous cell cycles. Egg extracts- so called “cycling extracts” - recapitulate many key cell cycle events and experimental manipulation of these extracts has contributed a wealth of biochemical and molecular information about DNA replication, mitosis, cell cycle checkpoints and chromatin, nuclear and mitotic spindle assembly.

Hensey Lab web page: http://www.ucd.ie/sbbs/staff/hensey_carmel/index.html