Project 2

Physical and Chemical Cues in Tumor Cell Migration

Participants

• Cynthia Reinhart-King
  Project Leader — Biomedical Engineering, Cornell-Ithaca
• Evi Giannakakou
  Project Co-Leader — Hematology and Oncology, Weill Cornell
• Itai Cohen
  Department of Physics, Cornell-Ithaca
• David Erickson
  Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell-Ithaca
• Sandra Shin, MD
  Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell
• Melody Swartz
  Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne(EPFL)
• Rebecca Williams
  Biomedical Engineering, Cornell-Ithaca
• Mingming Wu
  Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell-Ithaca
• Andrew Yen
  Biomedical Sciences, Cornell-Ithaca

This project is focused on understanding how chemical and mechanical forces in the tumor microenvironment enable and enhance cell migration during metastasis.  Migration is a fundamentally physical process characterized by the coordinated movement of cells through the matrix, dominated by chemical and mechanical gradients within the microenvironment.  We bring to bear a multidisciplinary approach to exert exacting control over the mechanics and chemistry of the microenvironment to study cancer cell migration as a function of chemical gradients and matrix stiffness mimicking the tumor environment.  We propose to utilize our strengths in micro- and nano-fabrication and high-resolution 3D imaging to create tumor-mimicking microenvironments and monitor cell migration in real time.  Our results will answer the questions: (i) What are the key extracellular physicochemical attributes that contribute to aggressiveness and tumor cell migration? And (ii) Does the tumor microenvironment contribute to decreased cell-sensitivity to chemotherapeutics during relapse?