Welcome to the lab website of Dr. Greenfield (Kip) Sluder.

We are located at the University of Massachusetts - Worcester Campus.

Our research is centered on the mechanisms that control various aspects of cell division. Applying microscopic and biophysical methods, we seek to elucidate the functional properties of control mechanisms as they operate in the living cell. Our results establish the basis for the integration of cell function with advances in the molecular biology of regulatory pathways. We use echinoderm zygotes, frog egg extracts, and cultured cells as model systems.

One of the major projects in the laboratory seeks to elucidate the controls that ensure that the interphase centrosome reproduces, or doubles, only once in each cell cycle in proper coordination with nuclear events. We have recently shown that centrosome reproduction is coordinated with nuclear events by activities that function during S phase of the cell cycle.

One method which we employ to study the centrosome is to use long term live cell imaging. Although a lot of our studies involve filming cells in transmitted light to follow cell cycle timing, we are beginning to use high-resolution 3-D fluorescence microscopy to study centriole dynamics in living cells.

We have also developed the first Xenopus egg extract system that supports repeated rounds of centrosome reproduction in vitro. Using this system we have shown that the activity of the cyclin dependent kinase 2- cyclin E complex (Cdk2-cyclin E) is required for multiple rounds of centrosome duplication.