The centromere is a unique region on each chromosome that functions as the site of kinetochore assembly and sister chromatid cohesion during mitosis and meiosis. Hence, the centromere plays a crucial role in genome inheritance, ensuring proper segregation of sister chromatids into each daughter cell. Despite its importance, the centromere has been relatively under investigated partly due to its reputation as part of the genomic ‘junk DNA’ post Human Genome Project. Its tract of highly repetitive sequences which spans several mega bases also poses technical challenges for sequence assembly. Thus, to date, the centromeric sequence remains unresolved and its functional studies at the molecular level are inadequate. To contribute to the area of centromere research, my research project aims to study centromere-related abnormalities using the NCI-60 panel comprising of 60 cancer cell lines to characterize the spectrum of centromeric defects including occurrences of dicentric and neocentric chromosomes. I found that these centromeric abnormalities are not specific to the tissue of origin and the correlation between these defects and overall chromosomal rearrangements is currently being established via the combined methods of immunofluorescence, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and multiplex-FISH. I will also perform functional chromosome lagging assay on cell lines showing high prevalence of dicentric chromosomes to further investigate the involvement of dicentric chromosomes in chromosomal instability of cancer.