{"id":14239,"date":"2018-09-10T17:00:12","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T15:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.embl.de\/?p=14239"},"modified":"2024-03-22T11:05:08","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T10:05:08","slug":"first-interactive-model-of-human-cell-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/first-interactive-model-of-human-cell-division\/","title":{"rendered":"First interactive model of human cell division"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mitosis \u2013 how one cell divides and becomes two \u2013 is one of the fundamental processes of life. Researchers at EMBL have now produced the first interactive map of proteins that make our cells divide, allowing users to track exactly where and in which groups the proteins drive the division process forward. This first dynamic protein atlas of human cell division is published in Nature<\/em> today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2010, a large study led by the same EMBL group identified which parts of the human genome are required for a human cell to divide<\/a>, as part of the EU MitoCheck project<\/a>. But cells don\u2019t run on genomic DNA; they run on the proteins it encodes. Proteins carry out most of the work in a cell, forming the cell\u2019s operational level. Processes like mitosis require the tight coordination of hundreds of different proteins in space and time. Proteins often work in groups, similar to the specialist teams of construction workers on a large building site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUntil now, individual labs have mostly been looking at single proteins in living cells,\u201d says Jan Ellenberg, the group leader at EMBL who led the project. \u201cSupported by the follow-up EU project MitoSys we were now able to take a systems approach, and look at the bigger picture by studying the dynamic networks many proteins form in living human cells.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resulting Mitotic Cell Atlas integrates these data in an interactive 4D computer model. In this public resource, scientists can freely choose any combination of mitotic proteins and see in real time where and with whom they work during cell division.<\/p>\n\n\n