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RESEARCH Cells can build an amazing variety of structures from proteins, structures notable for their range of shapes, their ability to respond to stimulus, and their motility. Our scientific interests are in the biophysical mechanisms by which cells engineer these large-scale structures--in other words, the molecular basis of morphology. The subject of our current research is the microtubule cytoskeleton. Microtubules are long, slender polymers of the protein tubulin, from which the cell constructs the cytoskeleton, the mitotic spindle, axonemes, and neuronal processes (below, right). These structures are not static. Rather, microtubules are broken down and rebuilt as the cell grows and changes shape, undergoes differentiation, and progresses through the cell cycle. Our aim is to understand the means by which cells accomplish these remarkable rearrangements of their microtubules.
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