The assembly and positioning of the mitotic spindle depend on the combined forces generated by microtubule dynamics, motor proteins and cross-linkers. Here we present our recently developed methods in which the geometrical confinement of spherical emulsion droplets is used for the bottom-up reconstitution of basic mitotic spindles.
Vleugel, M., Roth, S., Groenendijk, C. F., Dogterom, M. Reconstitution of Basic Mitotic Spindles in Spherical Emulsion Droplets. J. Vis. Exp. (114), e54278, doi:10.3791/54278 (2016).