Shaping the genome with SMC motors

How are the meters of DNA inside our cells organised in 3D to allow key chromosomal processes to take place in the correct manner? Key to this organisation are the SMC motors cohesin and condensin. But how do these molecular machines actually do what they do? And how are they regulated such that they can control the vast array of chromosomal processes ranging from transcription to chromosome segregation and DNA repair? These are the type of questions that drive research in the Rowland lab. Using a multi-disciplinary approach that involves genetics, genomics, biochemistry and imaging, the lab has uncovered a molecular code embedded in our proteins that directs cohesin and condensin to shape our chromosomes in interphase and mitosis.