Project description
Mechanical forces that create metastatic cancer cells
Metastatic cells disassociate from a primary tumour to form secondary tumours that usually prove to be more aggressive and fatal. The EU-funded FanCy project proposes a multidisciplinary approach, combining engineering, chemistry, biophysics and cell biology to identify the mechanistic pathways of metastases. The objective of this proposal is to understand when, how, and why metastatic cells detach from a tumour. Cells in tissue are very densely packed, locking them in place, a state referred to as jammed. The jammed cells can become fluidised locally and flow when pushed or deformed. Greater forces can turn the entire tissue into a fluid-like state, referred to as yielding. The project aims to answer crucial questions: how does tissue yield, and what biophysical mechanisms lead to yielding?
Objective
The aim of this proposal is to understand when, how and why metastatic tumour cells detach from a tumour.
Often, primary tumours do not kill patients, but secondary tumours do. These so-called metastatic tumour cells disassociate from a primary tumour and, ultimately, prove fatal. Currently, we do not understand the fundamentals of the biophysical pathways and mechanisms of the metastasis of cancer, hampering medical intervention. I propose a multidisciplinary approach, combining engineering, chemistry, biophysics and cell biology to identify the mechanical pathways for the creation of metastatic cancer cells.
Biological cells in tissue are very densely packed, which locks them in place relative to their neighbours, a state referred to as jammed. The collective system of cells can become fluidised locally and flow when pushed or deformed. Even greater forces can make the entire tissue fluid-like, referred to as yielding. The crucial open questions are: how does tissue yield, and what universal physics underlies yielding?
I will develop a novel fundamental and predictive description of yielding in jammed living tissue to show:
1. How and when jammed living cells are driven to fluid-like state.
2. How confinement tunes the migration mode of cancer cells.
3. How yielding is related to the structural evolution of detached cells.
4. How critical scaling controls deformation and flow of living cells near yielding.
I will demonstrate that the distance to yielding governs the mechanical response in collective cell motion inside a tumour, and that exploiting critical scaling allows predicting the dynamics of cell detachment near yielding. The outcomes will significantly aid the treatment of cancer in the near future by bridging the gap between chemical and mechanical pathways of cancer metastasis. I have the required multidisciplinary track record. Moreover, preliminary experiments show highly promising results.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantHost institution
2628 CN Delft
Netherlands