The role of nucleoplasmin in genome organisation and stability

A major focus of Patrick's research is to understand how chromosomes are organised in the cell nucleus. Specific genomic regions occupy distinct regions in the nucleus in many different organisms. Using Drosophila as a model, he showed that centromeres cluster together and associate with the nucleolus. This organisation depends on a network of factors associated with the protein NLP of the nucleoplasmin/phosmin family. A perturbation of this subnuclear architecture correlates with impaired genome stability. Patrick's lab currently aims to understand the molecular underpinnings of centromere positioning and dissect the functional role of the factors that mediate it.