Gregory Rogers

Associate Professor, Cellular and Molecular Medicine
Associate Professor, Molecular and Cellular Biology
Associate Professor, BIO5 Institute
Associate Head, Faculty Development
Associate Professor, Cancer Biology - GIDP
Associate Professor, Genetics - GIDP

Gregory C. Rogers, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. His laboratory is located in the University of Arizona Cancer Center.

The Rogers laboratory is interested in the molecular mechanisms cells use to maintain stability of their genomes. This is medically relevant because genomic instability can promote tumorigenesis. During mitosis, cells face particular risk, as errors in chromosome segregation can lead to chromosome instability (CIN) which is characterized, in part, by an abnormal chromosome complement (known as aneuploidy). Indeed, aneuploidy promotes malignant transformation and is an underlying cause of birth defects. Mitotic spindles are used to faithfully segregate chromosomes into daughter cells and, for this to occur properly, it is critical that cells assemble spindles with a bipolar fusiform-shape. Cells control spindle shape using centrosomes, tiny organelles that nucleate the microtubule cytoskeleton and organize the two spindle poles. Normally, cells contain a single centrosome which duplicates once per cell cycle, thus ensuring that cells enter mitosis with only two centrosomes to build a bipolar spindle. Cancer cells, however, overduplicate their centrosomes, which leads to multipolar spindle formation and chromosome instability. In fact, most human tumors contain cells with elevated centrosome numbers and aneuploid genomes. Importantly, the fundamental mechanisms that cells use to control their centrosome number are unclear, nor is it understood how this regulation goes awry in cancer. His work centers on characterizing a particular pathway (the Plk4 pathway) to control the biogenesis of centrosomes. This pathway utilizes both phosphorylation and ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis as regulatory mechanisms in a complex signaling pathway to control the biogenesis of centrosomes.