Kerry Bloom, PhD
Thad L. Beyle Distinguished Professor
Areas of Interest
Chromosome Dynamics, Centromere structure and function, polymer models of chromosomes, aneuploidy
About
My Research
The laboratory has a long-standing interest in chromatin structure with specific focus on the centromere. The visualization of centromere DNA dynamics challenged prevailing models of how cohesin holds sister centromeres together. Using bead-spring polymer models of chromosomes we discovered that the centromere is organized into a bottlebrush, in which the bulk of DNA is in radial loops, displaced from the primary axial core. The axial core is where tension is focused, and lies between kinetochore microtubules. We are currently using high spatiotemporal imaging of chromatin in vivo together with mathematical modeling to elucidate physical properties that underlie the formation and fluctuations of chromosomal territories, including the centromere and nucleolus. Introduction of tethers, cross-linkers and loop extrusion functionalities into the models sequester sub-domains and account for experimental observations.