Synthetic Engineering of Cortical Polarity During Mitosis Using Designed Proteins

During asymmetric cell division, cortical polarity cues drive the polarization of the microtubule cytoskeleton to ensure the generation of two daughter cells with different fates. While this a critical process for development and tissue homeostasis, the underlying molecular mechanisms orchestrating those processes are not completely understood, especially in mammals. Here, we present an assay that allows the study of the molecular mechanisms driving mammalian asymmetric cell division in a high-throughput manner by capitalizing on protein design to engineer cortical polarity of virtually any protein of interest in otherwise unpolarized mammalian culture cells.