Each cell in an organism has to control its size by balancing cell growth, division, and cell death. In particular, proliferating cells coordinate cell division with cell size and growth. In yeast as well as in humans, this coordination occurs in part at the G1/S transition: Cells that are smaller at their birth grow more before they divide compared to cells that are born bigger. Not surprisingly then, cancer cells – which lost the regulation of growth and division – often have altered and more variable sizes compared to healthy cells. Using live-cell time-lapse imaging combined with yeast genetics and molecular biology, we aim to understand the molecular processes through which cells can sense their own size, and adapt their size upon environmental changes such as changing nutrient conditions.

Schmoller, K.M. *, Lanz, M.C.*, Kim, J., Kõivomägi, M., Qu, Y., Tang, C., Kukhtevich, I.V., Schneider, R., Rudolf, F., Moreno, D.F., Adea, M., Lucena, R. & Skotheim, J.M. (2022) Whi5 is diluted and protein synthesis does not dramatically increase in pre-Start G1, Molecular Biology of the Cell, 33, 1-9

Swaffer, M.P., Kim, J., Chandler-Brown, D., Langhinrichs, M., Marinov, G.K., Greenleaf, W., Kundaje, A., Schmoller, K.M. & Skotheim, J.M. (2021) Transcriptional and chromatin-based partitioning mechanisms uncouple protein scaling from cell size, Molecular Cell. 81: 4861-4875.e7

Schmoller, K.M. (2017) The phenomenology of cell size control, Current Opinion in Cell Biology. 49: 53-58

Chandler-Brown, D.*, Schmoller, K.M.*, Winetraub, Y. & Skotheim, J.M. (2017) The adder phenomenon emerges from independent control of pre- and post-Start phases of the budding yeast cell cycle, Current Biology. 18: 2774-2783.e3

Schmoller, K.M. & Skotheim, J.M. (2015) The biosynthetic basis of cell size control, Trends in Cell Biology. 25: 793-802

Schmoller, K.M., Turner, J.J., Kõivomägi, M. & Skotheim, J.M. (2015) Dilution of the cell cycle inhibitor Whi5 controls budding-yeast cell size, Nature. 526: 268-272