Anne Villeneuve - Professor of Developmental Biology and of Genetics

Research in the Villeneuve lab is aimed at understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the faithful inheritance and function of eukaryotic chromosomes. Our primary focus is on elucidating the events required for the orderly segregation of homologous chromosomes during meiosis, the crucial process by which diploid germ cells generate haploid gametes. These events are of central importance to sexually reproducing organisms, since failure to execute them correctly leads to chromosomal aneuploidy, one of the leading causes of miscarriages and birth defects in humans.