Description du projet
Caractérisation biophysique des cellules tumorales circulantes
Des données récentes montrent que la métastase, un des marqueurs du cancer, est pilotée par des amas de cellules tumorales circulantes (CTC) qui parcourent de longues distances et colonisent des organes éloignés. L’objectif du projet BiCiCle, financé par L’UE, est de définir les propriétés biophysiques des amas de CTC et de comprendre comment ces cellules sont maintenues ensemble et se déplacent vers des organes éloignés. Grâce à la microscopie à force atomique et la spectroscopie de force à grande vitesse, les scientifiques étudieront l’adhésion cellule-cellule et les propriétés viscoélastiques de CTC isolées et d’amas de CTC. Les résultats de BiCiCle contribueront à comprendre la dissémination des cellules cancéreuses et aideront à identifier des cibles moléculaires des métastases.
Objectif
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)Coordinateur
75794 Paris
France