Cells migrate in a unique way on soft surfaces

Stanford engineers find that cancer cells exhibit a unique mode of migration on squishy materials, which are similar to biological tissues. In contrast, cell movement - a process central to cancer metastasis and other biological processes - is typically studied on very rigid materials. Inside your body, cell movement plays a crucial role in many significant biological processes, including wound healing, immune responses and the potential spread of cancer. Kolade Adebowale, left, a graduate student in chemical engineering, and Ovijit Chaudhuri, associate professor of mechanical engineering, have developed and tested materials that mimic the properties of real biological tissues in order to advance the study of study cell movement on tissues. (Image credit: Wesley Ford/Rod Searcey) "Most people don't die from having a primary tumor," said Kolade Adebowale, a graduate student in chemical engineering, and a member of the Chemical Biology Interface (CBI) graduate program in Chemistry, Engineering & Medicine for Human Health (ChEM-H) at Stanford University. "The problem is when cancer cells from the tumor acquire the ability to metastasize or move to different parts of the body." As an attempt to advance studies of cell migration, Adebowale and colleagues in the lab of Ovijit Chaudhuri , associate professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford, have worked to develop and test new types of material that closely imitate the real tissue that surrounds cells. New findings built on this work, published April 19 , upend the "textbook" view of cell migration and bring better insight into the impact of a material's elastic and viscous properties on cells.