Draviam moved to the United States for her postdoctoral research, spending in time in both the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[5] Whilst at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Draviam discovered one of the processes that caused tumours to form.[6] Aneuploidy describes the situation where a cell contains an abnormal number of chromosomes, and often occurs in aggressive tumour cells.[6] Before the work of Dravian it was known that checkpoint proteins work to limit abnormal cell division, but not clear why aneuploidy can still occur in cells with checkpoint proteins.[6] Draviam demonstrated that checkpoint proteins may be unable to differentiate defective or normal cells, where the differences can be very small.[6] She showed that checkpoint proteins have to 'sense' that both the adenomatous polyposis coli and EB1 proteins to support normal cell division.[6] During her time at MIT Dravian founded CellCentives, a clinical science initiative to eradicate tuberculosis.[7] In 2007 she proposed using mobile phones to remind people to improve their tuberculosis management.[8]
Draviam returned to the United Kingdom in 2008, where she was made a Cancer Research UK Fellow and established her own research group.[9][10] She moved to Queen Mary University of London in 2015 and was promoted to Professor of Cell And Molecular Biology in 2019.[11] The Draviam laboratory investigate sub-cellular movements that are involved with maintaining chromosome number. They study kinetochore proteins through selective mutations and investigations using single molecule microscopy.[3] Specifically, Draviam monitors chromosome microtubule attachment, end-on conversion, chromosome mis-segregation and how cells position spindles.[3]
Her publications[1][2] include:
- Timing and checkpoints in the regulation of mitotic progression[12]
- The ch-TOG/XMAP215 protein is essential for spindle pole organization in human somatic cells[13]
- Chromosome segregation and genomic stability[14]
Draviam serves as an editor of the scientific journal PeerJ.[15]
