Welcome to the Biggins Lab. Our goal is to understand the mechanisms that ensure accurate chromosome segregation and thus maintain genomic stability and prevent human disease. Sue Biggins, our Principal Investigator, is the Senior Vice President and Director of the Basic Sciences Division at Fred Hutch and an Investigator with The Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
We aim to understand how cells get the right chromosomes. Aneuploidy is the condition where cells contain the wrong number of chromosomes and it is the most common chromosomal abnormality in cancers and the cause of birth defects and other diseases. We therefore study the underlying mechanisms that regulate cell division and chromosome segregation to ensure accurate self-renewal, proliferation and development. We take an interdisciplinary approach that combines biochemical, biophysical, cell biological, genetic and structural approaches using yeast and human cells as model systems.
H3K4 methylation at active genes mitigates transcription-replication conflicts during replication stress
Chong, SY, Cutler, S, Lin, J, Tsai C, Tsai H, Biggins S, Tsukiyama T, Lo, Y, Kao CF. Nature Communications 2020
Kinetochore-associated Stu2 promotes chromosome biorientation in vivo
Miller MP, Evans R, Zelter A, Geyer EA, MacCross MJ, Rice LM, Davis TN, Asbury CL, Biggins S. PLos Genetics 2019
Autophosphorylation is sufficient to release Mps1 kinase from native kinetochores
Koch LB, Opoku KN, Deng Y, Barber A, Littleton AJ, London, N, Biggins S, Asbury CL. PNAS 2019
Andrew Popchock receives NIH F32 postdoctoral fellowship
Amanda Roca receives ACS postdoctoral fellowship