About us 
 
About us PI: Brigitte (Bri) Lavoie Tech2: Bill Waples PhD stud.: Charly Chahwan PhD stud.: Lisa D’Ambrosio Tech1: Fatemeh Shaeri 4th year: Yi-Ting (Ting) Hsieh Previous lab members Wendy Lam, MSc Erica Peterson, Tech2 Ju Yoon Yoon, MSc Daniella Coraci, Tech1 Kelly Thickett, MSc Marta Ciechonska, undergrad Maria Soloveychik, undergrad Emily Lee, undergrad  MY CONTACT info Email: brigitte.lavoie@utoronto.ca Address: Dept of Molecular Genetics, Medical Sciences Bldg, room 4278 1 King’s College Circle Toronto, Ontario CANADA M5S 1A8 PH 1-416-978-6123 FAX 1-416-978-6885  Our FAVorite stuff Food: Bill: Beer, but donuts come close Kelly: MEAT! “meat is murder, tasty tasty murder” Charly: Sweets Lisa: Salami Bri: Garden fresh tomatoes...I grow 6 different kinds Writers: Lewis Thomas (“The Lives of a Cell” got me through grad school and “The youngest science” a whole new appreciation for how little we truly understand about disease. Quotes: A talk is like a sculpture...what you take out is as important as what you leave in! Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction. Albert Einstein LIfe is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the number of moments that take our breath away. anonymoushttp://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alberteins148840.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0
 
A short summary of where we’ve been....  The progression of many cancers is enhanced by genetic instability and the unequal segregation of chromosomes. In eukaryotic cells, multiple protein machineries orchestrate the fidelity of chromosome transmission through higher order chromosome dynamics. These mechanisms include sister chromatid cohesion, which mediates pairing between newly replicated chromosomes, and mitotic chromosome condensation, which organizes the entangled and paired sister chromatids into discrete segregatable units. My group addresses the fundamental mechanistic aspects of mitotic chromosome folding by studying the molecular roles of the evolutionarily conserved condensin complex. Condensin, a 5 subunit complex, was first identified in frog egg extracts 1997, and even today little is known about how it contributes to higher order chromosome structure. The overall goal of our research is to determine, at the molecular level, how the essential condensin complex promotes faithful chromosome transmission in eukaryotes. My group seeks to provide a framework for understanding condensin function on chromosomes, its physiological substrate, and relating it back to the properties of condensin defined in vitro. Specifically, my group has: (1) identified molecular intermediates in chromosome condensation and defined the requirements for key steps in the reaction (Lavoie et al, 2002 and 2004, JCB and GenesDev, respectively), (2) defined specialized roles for individual condensin subunits (Lam et al, 2006 Genes Dev), and (3) identified novel factors in chromosome transmission fidelity using functional genomics approaches (Waples et al,2009 MBC; Ng et al, 2009). Importantly, our in vivo data has challenged several predictions made from the in vitro experiments, and the discovery that condensin can promote sister chromatid cohesion independently of cohesin puts new constraints for models of how sister chromatid cohesion could work. The next steps are even more interesting. We are addressing how the cohesin and condensin complexes are regulated during the cell cycle, and are particularly intrigued by how sister chromatid cohesion is maintained during mitosis, prior to the onset of anaphase (when cohesins get cleaved). In addition to that, it’s becoming clear that post-translational modifications of cohesins plays an important role in DNA damage repair as well as mitotic progression, and we are pursuing projects aimed at defining the “cohesin code”.