Faculty Member


Iain Cheeseman

Member, Whitehead Institute

Associate Professor of Biology, MIT


Cheeseman Lab


“Cell division is one of the most fundamental aspects of biology, the process that makes life,” says Whitehead Member Iain Cheeseman. “And it has an intrinsic beauty.”

Captivated by this process while a graduate student in biology, Cheeseman began focusing on the kinetochore, a key structure that helps to divvy up DNA molecules shortly before cells divide, ensuring that each daughter cell receives a proper set of chromosomes and the genetic material they contain.

Early during cell division, each chromosome is duplicated and split into two identical copies known as chromatids, which must be sorted and organized to ensure that new cells receive a single copy of each chromosome. Enter the kinetochore—a network of proteins that forms at a single site on each chromatid. The kinetochore physically connects the chromatids to an array of tiny proteins that make up the so called "mitotic spindle" and ensures that chromatids are positioned and split correctly as the spindle pulls them apart.

Working in yeast, the Caenorhabditis elegans worm and human cells, Cheeseman has helped to identify dozens of the kinetochore’s molecular components and their specific roles. He is also defining how the attachments between kinetochores and spindle microtubules are regulated throughout cell division. He is tackling these challenges in human cells with a broad array of biochemical and cell biological research techniques.

Because many cancers may be driven by errors in chromosome segregation, it is hoped that Cheeseman’s studies will provide payoffs in cancer research. Certain cancer drugs target the connection between chromosomes and spindle microtubules, and some of the major proteins in the kinetochore complex have been implicated in leukemia and other diseases.

Cheeseman did his undergraduate training at Duke University, and his graduate work at the University of California/Berkeley, where he earned a doctorate in 2002. He carried out his postdoctoral work in the lab of Arshad Desai at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in San Diego and the University of California/San Diego.

Selected achievements

  • Harold W. Weintraub Graduate Student Award, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (2003)
  • Fellow, Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research (2003)
  • Smith Family New Investigator Award (2007)
  • Helped to identify dozens of the kinetochore’s molecular components and their specific roles
  • New Investigator Grant, Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (2008)
  • Searle Scholar Award (2009)
  • Young Investigator grant, Human Frontier Science Program (2010)
