Matrix Physicochemical Cues as Chemotherapeutic Protective Agents in Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Thuy Nguyen
Thuy is building a highthroughput biomaterial system in which to quantify how cancer cells respond to drugs in the presence of physiologically relevent stiffness and adhesive protein cues.
Inflammatory Feedback Loops in Cardiovascular Disease
Will Herrick Funding: ICE IGERT
We are investigating the ability of matrix state to trigger SMC motility and invasion via stiffness changes during atherosclerosis and the presence of infiltrating macrophages.
Stiffness Sensing as a Metastatic Indicator
Collaboration with the Al Crosby Lab at the University of Massachusetts, Polymer Science
Dannielle Ryman Funding: MRSEC
Metastasis is the leading cause of fatality for women diagnosed with breast cancer. It is well known that tumor environments stiffen: palpitation remains a powerful tool for early tumor detection. More recently, this matrix stiffening event at the sites of tumors has been linked to morphological changes in the tumor itself, and it is hypothesized by us and others that these stiffness changes may contribute to single cell metastasis. However, the mechanisms by which metastatic cells sense and respond to stiffness is unclear, and it is not yet known if metastatic cells respond to stiffness cues in a unique way. We are working with Yuri Ebata and Yujie Liu from Al Crosby's lab in PSE to make novel substrates with unique presentation of stiffness arrays and mechanical length scales. We are visualizing how breast cancer cells of varying known metastatic capability sense and respond (namely, migration and mitosis) to these changes in stiffness. From there, we will identify the molecular mechanisms by which these cells have either heightened or dampened stiffness sensing, in order to develop novel druggable targets to prevent metastasis in vivo.
Predicting Tissue Tropism in Metastasis
Lauren Barney and Erinn Dandley, in Collaboration with Todd Emrick in PSE
Erinn and Lauren are creating both 2D and 3D models of tissues that are most often recipient of breast cancer metastasis. They are quantifying how breast cancer cells migrate and invade in these diverse environments, in the hope that we can identify physical mechanisms by which breast cancer spreads.
Anomalous Diffusion Methods to Predict 3D Stem Cell Motility in Porous Scaffolds
Tyler Vlass, in Collaboration with Josh Cohen at MIT
Tyler and Josh are both outstanding undergraduates that the Peyton lab is lucky to work with. Tyler is leading experimental efforts to quantify how adult stem cells migrate in response to physical properties of 2D and 3D scaffolds. Josh works with us from MIT and is developing new computational approaches to describe and predict stem cell migration in these scaffolds.
