EMBO Associate Member
Karen Oegema
EMBO 2026
University of California San Diego, La Jolla, United States
Cell division mechanisms and embryonic development
My lab studies two aspects of cell division, centrosome assembly and cytokinesis, in C. elegans embryos and human cells. We developed centrinone, a PLK4 inhibitor that depletes centrosomes from cells, which revealed therapeutic potential in cancers with high TRIM37 expression and uncovered a p53-based tumor suppressive pathway. We are also using high-content imaging to assign function to ~1000 C. elegans genes essential for embryonic development.
Keywords
centrosome / cytokinesis / cell division / cytoskeleton / embryonic development / C. elegans / functional genomics / cancer