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Human Artificial Chromosomes

Understanding the complex centromeres of natural human chromosomes has served as a platform for creation of human artificial chromosomes, first accomplished in our lab in 1997.  Current efforts involve optimization of centromere sequences and development of new vectors to improve the efficiency of human artificial chromosome formation. 

Key Recent Publications

  • Basu J, Willard HF (2005) Artificial and engineered chromosomes: non-integrating vectors for gene therapy. Trends Mol. Med. 11:  251-258. NCBI Link 
     
  • Basu J, Stromberg G, Compitello G, Willard HF, Van Bokkelen G (2005) Rapid creation of BAC-based human artificial chromosome vectors by transposition with synthetic alpha-satellite arrays. Nucleic Acids Res. 33:  587-596. NCBI Link
     
  • Grimes BR, Babcock J, Rudd MK, Chadwick B, Willard HF (2004) Assembly and characterization of heterochromatin and euchromatin on human artificial chromosomes. Genome Biol. 5:  R89. NCBI Link

A Human Artificial Chromosome

  • The arrowhead indicates an euchromatin mark on a human artificial chromosome.
  • The tailed arrow indicates the centromere of chromosome 17 where this euchromatin mark is depleted.