A biophysical model in which kinetochore microtubules nucleate at kinetochores and growth polward along nematic streamlines quantitatively explains kinetochore microtubule lengths, orientations, and spatially varying dynamics in metaphase human spindles.

A protein kinase complex that is important for cell division is lost in testicular seminoma, which is a common cancer in men.

An ultra-high static magnetic field changes mitotic spindle orientation in cells by exerting magnetic torques on both microtubules and chromosomes.

New germline gene expression, knockout, and optogenetic tools reveal essential roles for Gα-GPR-1,2/Pins as a regulatable membrane anchor and LIN-5/NuMA as an activator of cortical dynein in mitotic spindle positioning.

An interaction between two proteins enables the spindle—the structure that segregates chromosome pairs during mitosis—to change size as cells divide.

Centrosomes in mammalian cells are required for timely completion of mitosis and in their absence the spindle assembly checkpoint is required to delay mitosis and allow assembly of a functional spindle.

A computational model of fission yeast mitosis can interrogate mechanisms required for successful mitosis, the origin of spindle length fluctuations, and spindle force balance during assembly.

Microtubules of mitotic spindle fibers are positioned and held together by a meshwork of multipolar connectors.

A newly identified microtubule binding activity of NuMA is required for orienting the mitotic spindle.

Experimentally reconstructing the evolution of the molecular complex that animals use to orient the mitotic spindle establishes a simple genetic and physical mechanism for the emergence of a function essential for multicellularity.