Descripción del proyecto
Caracterización biofísica de células tumorales circulantes
Nuevos indicios revelan que la metástasis, una de las características distintivas del cáncer, es impulsada por grupos de células tumorales circulantes (CTC) que recorren largas distancias y colonizan órganos distantes. El objetivo del proyecto BiCiCle, financiado con fondos europeos, es determinar las propiedades biofísicas de los grupos de CTC y comprender cómo estas células se mantienen unidas y se desplazan hasta órganos distantes. Mediante microscopia de fuerza atómica y espectroscopia de fuerzas a altas velocidades, los científicos estudiarán la adhesión célula-célula y las propiedades viscoelásticas de CTC individuales y de grupos de CTC. Los resultados de BiCiCle contribuirán a entender la diseminación de las células cancerosas y ayudarán a identificar dianas moleculares de la metástasis.
Objetivo
The major cause of cancer-associated mortality is tumor metastasis, a complex multistep process where cancer cells spread within the patient’s body. There is an emerging realization that the fearsome vectors of this cancer dissemination are clusters of so-called circulating tumor cells (CTC) that travel together in the bloodstream where they are subjected to important mechanical forces. Nevertheless, the current knowledge of how these cells are held together is extremely limited. This proposal aims at unravelling the biophysical properties of CTCs clusters from the molecular level to the multicellular level. The applicant Dr Valotteau proposes to use her experience in atomic force microscopy (AFM) to carry out this project under the supervision of Dr Rico who has well-established expertise in high speed force spectroscopy (HS-FS), in collaboration with Dr Pannequin who is a specialist of CTC. This project will be hosted by CNRS in the Laboratoire Adhesion & Inflammation (LAI) which is one of a very few laboratories worldwide equipped with HS-FS, enabling to correlate the characterization of the cell-cell adhesion with the study of the viscoelastic properties of single CTC and CTC clusters over a wide dynamic range physiologically relevant. By gathering complementary resources at the crossroad of cell biology, biophysics and nanotechnology, this BiCiCle project will fill an important knowledge gap about CTC cluster and greatly benefit to the career development of Dr Valotteau. Indeed, this fellowship will provide her a stimulating multidisciplinary environment and topic to set the basis of her own independent research project to become an academic researcher leading in the interdisciplinary field of biophysics.
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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinador
75794 Paris
Francia