Nikita Gudimchuk

The main object of laboratory research is tubulin microtubules. They are the most important components of the intracellular skeleton, are involved in transport, maintaining the shape of the cell, determine the location of organelles inside the cell, carry out the transfer of chromosomes during cell division, participate in migration, polarization of cells, the movement of flagella and cilia.

Microtubules have an important but not fully understood ability to lengthen and shorten, which allows them to dynamically adjust the intracellular skeleton to the current tasks of the cell. In addition, their dynamics allow the development of pushing and pulling forces, which play a key role in separating chromosomes during cell division. Microtubule dynamics is finely regulated by dozens of different proteins, the exact mechanisms of most of which also remain unknown. Because of the important role of microtubule dynamics during cell division, they are a key target for many current cancer chemotherapy drugs. These drugs, by inhibiting microtubule dynamics in different ways, stop the division of cancer cells.

The group conducts theoretical and experimental studies of microtubules on the following topics:

1) Fundamental mechanisms of dynamic microtubule instability
2) The mechanisms of the microtubule as a molecular motor - the oldest generator of force inside the cell
3) Mechanisms of regulation of microtubule dynamics by associated proteins
4) Deciphering the molecular basis of the work of inhibitors of microtubule dynamics and the development of drugs based on new principles of work.

1) Gudimchuk NB, McIntosh JR. Regulation of microtubule dynamics, mechanics and function through the growing tip. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2021 Aug 18. doi: 10.1038/s41580-021-00399-x. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34408299.

2) Gudimchuk NB, Ulyanov EV, O'Toole E, Page CL, Vinogradov DS, Morgan G, Li G, Moore JK, Szczesna E, Roll-Mecak A, Ataullakhanov FI, Richard McIntosh J. Mechanisms of microtubule dynamics and force generation examined with computational modeling and electron cryotomography. Nat Commun. 2020 Jul 28;11(1):3765. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-17553-2. PMID: 32724196; PMCID: PMC7387542.

3) Chen J, Kholina E, Szyk A, Fedorov VA, Kovalenko I, Gudimchuk N, Roll-Mecak A. α-tubulin tail modifications regulate microtubule stability through selective effector recruitment, not changes in intrinsic polymer dynamics. Dev Cell. 2021 Jul 26;56(14):2016-2028.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2021.05.005. Epub 2021 May 21. PMID: 34022132.

4) Mechanical properties of tubulin intra- and inter-dimer interfaces and their implications for microtubule dynamic instability. PLoS Comput Biol. 2019 Aug 30;15(8):e1007327. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007327. PMID: 31469822; PMCID: PMC6742422.

5) McIntosh JR, O'Toole E, Morgan G, Austin J, Ulyanov E, Ataullakhanov F, Gudimchuk N. Microtubules grow by the addition of bent guanosine triphosphate tubulin to the tips of curved protofilaments. J Cell Biol. 2018 Aug 6;217(8):2691-2708. doi: 10.1083/jcb.201802138. Epub 2018 May 23. PMID: 29794031; PMCID: PMC6080942.

6) Gudimchuk N, Roll-Mecak A. Watching microtubules grow one tubulin at a time. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019 Apr 9;116(15):7163-7165. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1902991116. Epub 2019 Mar 25. PMID: 30910988; PMCID: PMC6462061.

7) Gudimchuk N, Vitre B, Kim Y, Kiyatkin A, Cleveland DW, Ataullakhanov FI, Grishchuk EL. Kinetochore kinesin CENP-E is a processive bi-directional tracker of dynamic microtubule tips. Nat Cell Biol. 2013 Sep;15(9):1079-1088. doi: 10.1038/ncb2831. Epub 2013 Aug 18. PMID: 23955301; PMCID: PMC3919686.