The Role of Cell Migration Guidance Cues in Emergent Collective Behavior

ORAL

Abstract

Studying the dynamics of collective systems can provide insight into how the motion of individual active agents can lead to unexpected emergent collective behavior. As tumors cells migrate to form metastases, a particularly lethal stage of cancer, the cells’ collective behavior is disrupted. Although current research largely focuses on individual cells, recent evidence shows that the most dangerous tumor cells retain the ability to move as collective strands or clusters that metastasize together. In this work, we use quantitative image analysis tools and live-cell imaging to investigate how guidance cues influence cells with different tumorigenicity, leading to distinct migration behavior.

*This research is supported by NIH grant T32-CA154274 and AFOSF grant number FA9550-16-1-0052.

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Presenters

  • Rachel Lee

    • University of Maryland School of Medicine
    • University of Maryland, College Park

Authors

  • Rachel Lee

    • University of Maryland School of Medicine
    • University of Maryland, College Park

  • Matt J. Hourwitz

    • University of Maryland, College Park
    • Department of Chemistry, University of Maryland,College Park
    • Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland-College Park

  • Phillip Alvarez

    • University of Maryland, College Park
    • Institute of Physical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park
    • Biophysics, University of Maryland, College Park

  • Keyata N. Thompson

    • University of Maryland School of Medicine

  • Michele I. Vitolo

    • University of Maryland School of Medicine

  • John T Fourkas

    • University of Maryland, College Park
    • Department of Chemistry, University of Maryland,College Park
    • Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland-College Park

  • Wolfgang Losert

    • University of Maryland, College Park
    • Department of Physics, University of Maryland
    • Institute of Physical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park
    • Department of Physics, University of Maryland,College Park
    • Physics, University of Maryland, College Park
    • Department of Physics, University of Maryland-College Park
    • IREAP, IPST, University of Maryland, College Park
    • Departments of Physics, IPST and IREAP, University of Maryland, College Park

  • Stuart S. Martin

    • University of Maryland School of Medicine