Don Cleveland

Don Cleveland is a preeminent cell biologist whose research on chromosome segregation and kinetochore biology has illuminated the mechanistic basis of chromosomal instability in cancer. His laboratory discovered CENP-E, a kinetochore-associated motor protein essential for chromosome congression, and characterized how its dysfunction drives chromosome missegregation and CIN. He demonstrated that errors in kinetochore-microtubule attachment are a primary source of whole chromosome missegregation in cancer. His work informs therapeutic strategies targeting mitotic kinases and chromosome segregation machinery in CIN-high tumors.