News archive, 2013–2025

The lab grilled dinner for guests at the American Cancer Society's Hope Lodge. Thanks to Kira Fisher for organizing!

In collaboration with Laura Reinholdt (The Jackson Laboratory), Carleigh Nesbit identified Anapc5 and Anapc7 as genetic modifiers of KIF18A function in fertility and mitotic progression. Read the paper here.

Read the UVM Cancer Center's interview with Petra about her research experience in the lab here.

Ethan, a CMB Ph.D. student, has joined the lab to study sensitivity and resistance to KIF18A inhibitors. Welcome Ethan!

Petra Kapsalis received the Warren R. Stinebring Outstanding Senior in Microbiology Award, which recognizes academic excellence and professional growth by a microbiology major. Congratulations to Petra and Ava Caito on graduating from UVM! We will miss you both.

Congratulations to Ava on a very successful Distinction in Undergraduate Research (DUR) thesis defense!

Congratulations to Petra on passing her Distinction in Undergraduate Research (DUR) thesis defense with flying colors!

Our collaborative work characterizing a selective KIF18A inhibitor that targets chromosomally unstable tumors is out in Nature Communications. Congratulations to Katie Queen and all of the authors! Read the paper here.

Our new spinning disk confocal system, nicknamed "Celesta" after its laser light engine, is set up and imaging in HSRF 008.

Carleigh Nesbit's collaborative study with Laura Reinholdt's lab identifies genetic modifiers of KIF18A function. Check out the preprint here. Congrats Carleigh!

Vermont Medicine published an article about former lab member Katie Queen's path to her faculty position with the UVM Cancer Center. Read it here (pages 16–17).

Jason received the Research Mentor Award from UVM's Larner College of Medicine.

Congratulations to Anna Belongia on the successful defense of her Master's thesis!

Jason was promoted to Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics.

The lab served dinner to guests at the American Cancer Society's Hope Lodge in Burlington, which provides free lodging for patients receiving cancer treatment and their caregivers. Thanks to everyone who supported a great cause!

Lab members helped introduce area high school students to research careers during the UVM Cancer Center's Careers in Cancer Day. See the WCAX story, which includes a few shots of our lab, here.

Amila Šemić was awarded a Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) Fellowship for 2024–2025, part of a U.S. Department of Education training grant to the CMB program. Petra Kapsalis received a Nicole J. Ferland Award from the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics to support full-time summer research in the lab. Congratulations Amila and Petra!

Sarah-Catherine Paschall received a NASA-funded Vermont Space Grant Consortium Graduate Fellowship for the 2024–2025 academic year. Congratulations Sarah-Catherine!

This study identifies the KIF18A α4 helix as a therapeutic target for chromosomally unstable tumor cells. Read the paper in Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences here.

Katie shows that modifying the KIF18A neck linker changes which microtubule subpopulations the motor prefers. The study was first posted as a preprint in May. Read the paper in Molecular Biology of the Cell here.

Congratulations to CMB Ph.D. student Katie Queen on the successful defense of her dissertation! Katie is now an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the UVM Cancer Center.

Olivia was selected to receive the Joan M. Herbers Award in Biology, given to one outstanding UVM undergraduate for achievements in the study of biology. Congratulations Olivia!

Undergraduate Petra Kapsalis was awarded a UVM Cancer Center summer research fellowship. Maxine Robinson, an Engineering Physics major at Delaware State University, chose the lab for her VBRN summer fellowship project. Welcome, Maxine, and congratulations, Petra!

Alex Thompson received the Larner College of Medicine's Dean's Excellence in Research Award for Outstanding Research Publication by a graduate student, for her eLife paper on pathogenic KIF22 mutations. Well deserved, Alex!

Alex Thompson shows that point mutations in KIF22 that cause a rare skeletal dysplasia disrupt anaphase chromosome segregation. Read the paper here.

Jason's NIH administrative supplement for a new TIRF microscope was funded. More new imaging capabilities coming to the lab soon!

Congratulations to CMB Ph.D. student Alex Thompson on the successful defense of her dissertation! Alex is now a Clinical Variant Scientist at GeneDx.

A methods chapter written by Alex Thompson and Sarah Vandal describing an assay for quantitatively comparing polar ejection forces in mammalian mitotic cells is now published in Methods in Molecular Biology: Mitosis. Alex's images of monopolar spindles are also featured on the cover of the book! Congrats Alex and Sarah!

A great collaboration with Michael Cianfrocco, Puck Ohi, and Dave Sept at Univ of Michigan resulted in a detailed structural model and mechanistic description of kinesin inhibition by KIFBP. Postdoc Katie Schutt contributed all of the cell biology experiments to test the physiological relevance of the model. You can check out the manuscript here.

Leslie's manuscript on the impact of micronuclei was awarded the 2021 Outstanding Research Publication Award from UVM's Larner College of Medicine. Jason was awarded the 2021 Mid-Career Investigator Award. Congratulations to both Leslie and Jason!

Our latest collaborative study with Laura Reinholdt (The Jackson Laboratory) was published in The Journal of Cell Biology. This work shows that micronuclei in Kif18a mutant mice are stable and rarely rupture and indicates that different "types" of micronuclei behave differently. Congratulations Leslie! See our Tweetorial about the paper here.

This work describes how point mutations in KIF22 that dominantly cause a rare bone development disorder prevent inactivation of KIF22's activity at the metaphase-to-anaphase transition. Check out the preprint here. Also see Alex's Tweetorial describing the paper here.

Congratulations to CMB Ph.D. student Leslie Sepaniac on the successful defense of her dissertation! A huge milestone!

Wonderful press coverage of our recent work identifying KIF18A as a potential cancer target in:

Seven Days

Local news interviews (here and here)

A story focused on undergrad contributions from Carolyn Marquis and Lisa Wood

This study describes an unexpected dependency of tumor cells that exhibit chromosome instability (CIN) on KIF18A for proliferation and survival.

The tumor cell screens in this study were greatly facilitated by a collaboration with Joe Clayton at BioTek Instruments. Funding from Susan G. Komen also brought together a fantastic team of scientists, clinicians, and patient advocates that provided key insights for the design of this work.

A press release summarizing the impact of the work and its connection to two recently published Nature papers can be found here.

Congratulations to Carolyn Marquis, who began this work as an undergraduate researcher in the lab, and all of the authors!

This study, led by Uri Ben-David at Tel Aviv University, uncovers genes that aneuploid tumor cells depend on more than near-diploid cells, including spindle assembly checkpoint components and KIF18A. This major collaborative effort involved six labs in five different countries.

Congrats to Stumpff Lab members Carolyn Marquis and Heidi Malaby, who co-authored this paper! A press release describing the work can be found here and a complementary co-published study from Neil Ganem's lab on genes required for genome duplicated tumor cells can be found here.

In collaboration with Laura Reinholdt, Leslie Sepaniac examined the impact and stability of micronuclei formed in vivo due to loss of Kif18a both in normal tissues and in tumors that develop in p53 null mice. She shows that micronuclei in Kif18a loss of function cells have stable nuclear envelopes both in vivo and in vitro and that this is likely explained by the subcellular positioning of lagging chromosomes that form micronuclei in late mitosis. Check out the preprint here.

Katie Queen was awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation to support her work to understand the regulation of mitotic kinesins, as well as outreach efforts to improve science education at the high school level. Congratulations Katie!

Three manuscripts describing possible approaches to specifically inhibit the growth of aneuploid and chromosomally unstable cancer cells were recently posted on bioRxiv. Our lab contributed to two of these studies, one in collaboration with Uri Ben-David at Tel Aviv University, and we were happy to coordinate preprint submission with Neil Ganem and his lab's work on cells that have undergone whole genome duplication.

Please check out all 3 papers if you're interested:
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.18.159327v1
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.18.159038v1
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.18.159095v1

Alex Thompson was awarded an F31 NRSA fellowship from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) to investigate the "Molecular etiology of Spondyloepimetaphyseal Dysplasia with joint laxity, leptodactylic type." Congratulations Alex!

In collaboration with Laura Reinholdt at the Jackson Laboratory, we used cell culture and mouse models lacking Kif18a function to investigate the consequences of cell division in the absence of chromosome alignment. These studies suggest that a major function of chromosome alignment is to promote interchromosomal compaction during anaphase and organization of all chromosomes into a single, ovoid nucleus at the completions of cell division. You can find the manuscript in JCB here. Congratulations to Stumpff lab members Cindy Fonseca, Heidi Malaby, Leslie Sepaniac, and Dana Messinger and Reinholdt lab members Whitney Martin, Candice Byers, and Anne Czechanski on a very story!

Heidi Malaby and Meghan Dumas (Ohi Lab) use quantitative cell imaging and protein biochemistry to show that KBP functions to buffer the activities of KIF18A and KIF15 during mitosis. You can find the Journal of Cell Biology article describing this work here.

Heidi Malaby and Dominique Lessard (Berger Lab) use a combination of quantitative cell imaging and single molecule motility assays to show that KIF18A's relatively long neck linker permits navigation of microtubules in the presence of microtubule-associated proteins and concentration of the motor at kinetochore microtubule (kMT) ends.  This work suggests that KIF18A's ability to move around obstacles on microtubules is required for its chromosome alignment function. You can read the whole paper here in Life Science Alliance (open access).

Heidi Malaby (Stumpff lab) and Dominique Lessard (Berger lab) show that the KIF18A neck linker provides structural flexibility needed to navigate microtubule-bound obstacles like HURP and reach the ends of kinetochore microtubules. You can read the preprint here.

Our recent Preprint describing the function of chromosome alignment was selected by Maiko Kitaoko for a highlight on preLights.

Through collaborations with the Reinholdt, Tang, and Ohi labs, we show that loss of chromosome alignment leads to defects in nuclear envelope reassembly at the completion of mitosis. You can read the preprint here. Congrats to Stumpff lab members Cindy Fonseca, Heidi Malaby, Leslie Sepaniac, and Dana Messinger!

Heidi Malaby and Megan Dumas (Ohi lab) show that kinesin binding protein (KBP) functions to buffer the activity of KIF18A and KIF15 during spindle assembly and chromosome alignment in mitotic cells. You can check out the preprint here.

You can read Haein's paper here. Congrats Haein!

Alex received this year's Cathy Bulman Award for Best Poster Presentation for her work on the effects of Eg5 acetylation. Congratulations Alex!

Leslie Sepaniac and Alex Thompson were awarded the 1st and 2nd place prizes, respectively, for their talks at the Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Trainee Research showcase, which was part of the Larner College of Medicine's Excellence in Research Celebration. Congrats Leslie and Alex!

Heidi organized and chaired the first ever Motile and Contractile Systems Gordon Research Symposium for students and postdocs. The one day symposium took place just before the start of the GRC.

Heidi Malaby, Ph.D. was awarded a Horizon Award Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program to support her work on mitotic kinesins in colorectal cancer. Congratulations Heidi!!

Leslie Sepaniac, a CMB graduate student, was awarded a Vermont Space Grant Consortium Fellowship to support her work on understanding the impact of micronuclei. Congratulations Leslie!

Undergraduate researcher Carolyn Marquis was awarded a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship to study mitotic kinesins in triple negative breast cancer cells this summer. Congratulations Carolyn!

Sarah Vandal, an undergraduate at Colby College, joined the lab for the summer after receiving an NSF funded Summer Neuroscience Undergrad Research Fellowship (SNURF). Welcome Sarah!

Alex Thompson, a Cellular Molecular and Biomedical Sciences Graduate student, joined the lab. Welcome Alex!

The Stumpff and Howe labs were awarded a collaborative grant from the Lake Champlain Cancer Research Organization to investigate kinesin function during cell migration.

Our Susan G. Komen funded project related to Triple Negative Breast Cancer was featured in a story by Vermont Public Radio's Kathleen Masterson. You can listen to Kathleen's report and read more about the story here.

Jason received the Rising Star New Investigator Award at the first annual Dean's Excellence in Research Celebration. While Jason was honored to receive the award, it really recognizes the outstanding research accomplishments of the entire lab.

Jason received a Career Catalyst Research Award from Susan G. Komen to investigate new molecular targets for triple negative breast cancer. This project is part of an ongoing collaboration with Alan Howe and Chris Anker. The interdisciplinary research team also includes two patient advocates, Carol Vallett and Marion Thurnauer, as well as several members of the UVM Cancer Center (Gary Stein, Jane Lian, Marie Wood, and George Atweh). You can read more about the award and project Vermont Business Magazine and The Larner College of Medicine website. You can also see news coverage of the award in segments from WCAX  and NBC5.

The 2016 Muscle and Molecular Motors Gordon Research Conference (GRC) was held at Mount Snow, VT. Heidi presented a poster describing her investigations of Kif18A's targeting to kinetochore-microtubule ends.  Jason gave both a poster and a talk on Haein Kim's work, which is focused on determining Kif18A's role in stabilizing kinetochore-microtubule attachments. Great work Heidi and Haein!

Leslie, a doctoral student in the CMB program, has joined the Stumpff lab to conduct her dissertation research. Welcome Leslie!

Lisa Wood, an MMG undergraduate student, has received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) from UVM to investigate new approaches for inhibiting the growth and movement of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells. Congratulations Lisa!

Dana gave an excellent presentation on her studies of micronucleaus formation at the annual Student Research Conference. Great job Dana!

Jillian, a Medical Laboratory Sciences major, has joined the lab as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome Jillian!

Jason and Chris were invited to talk about cancer research with local news anchor Mike Curkov for the "Health Matters" during "No Shave November." You can check out a clip of the live interview here, which includes footage from the lab and a couple of movies of dividing human cells.

A series of Cindy's images of cells in different phases of the cell cycle were selected for an art exhibit curated by the Flemming Museum. You can read more about the exhibit here and here.

Jason and Chris Anker, a radiation oncologist at the UVM Medical Center, were recently awarded an American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant to investigate a novel anti-mitotic approach to cancer therapy. You can read more about the project on the UVM College of Medicine website.

Dana Messinger, an undergraduate researcher in the Stumpff lab, received a highly competitive Summer Research Award from the UVM Office of Undergraduate Research for her proposal to determine how chromosome alignment defects lead to genomic instability. Congratulations Dana!

Through a great collaboration with Laura Reinholdt's lab, we discovered that the mitotic kinesin, Kif18A, is required for cell division in germ cells but not somatic cells. Kif18A plays a central role in aligning chromosomes during metaphase. Interestingly, somatic cells lacking Kif18A divide without aligning their chromosomes. We're now trying to understand why Kif18A is specifically required in the germline and how segregating chromosomes in the absence of alignment impacts genomic stability.

Heidi Malaby's review discussing the importance of a new paper from Gary Brouhard's lab was recently published in Current Biology. Nice work Heidi!

Haein Kim and Cindy Fonseca collaborated to determine how kinesin molecules function to control chromosome alignment during cell divison. You can find their recent paper published in Molecular Biology of the Cell here or here. A short interview with Haein is also featured on the CMB website. Congrats Haein and Cindy!

Read more about this campaign to put a face on biomedical research here.

Haein was selected as the 2nd place winner in this year's Graduate Student Research Day at UVM. Congratulations Haein!

Heidi earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Pharmacology from UMass Medical School and has joined the lab for her postdoctoral studies. Welcome Heidi!

Sam Bissonette's article in the Journal of Cellular Physiology is officially out online, and Cindy Fonseca's images of mitotic cells were selected for the cover art. Congrats to Sam and Cindy!

You can access our "Spotlight" feature here.

You can read more about the course here. Congratulations Haein!

This grant will fund our investigations of the mechanical control of mitotic chromosome biorientation. You can read more about the project and the award here.

This award, which recognizes a UVM Biochemistry student with an outstanding academic record, will support Julia's research on kinetochore force dynamics this summer. Congratulations Julia!

This was a great meeting put on by the Boston Area Mitosis and Meiosis group, hosted by Iain Cheeseman and Jonathan Higgins. Congratulations on a great job Cindy!

Congratulations Sam!

Welcome Julia and Dana!

The Vermont Cancer Center and Lake Champlain Cancer Research Organization awarded Jason and Mary Tang a Program Grant to investigate the consequences of disrupting chromosome alignment.

Haein is in the CMB graduate program at UVM and bravely decided to become the first grad student in the Stumpff lab.

Sam will be studying the mechanisms controlling mitotic chromosome orientation for her honors thesis project.