PoC - Physics of Cancer - Annual Symposium
Invited Talk, Thursday, 18:00 – 18:30  
Defined migration assays to study tumor cell migration

Ralf Kemkemer1, Claudio G Rolli1, Jun Nakanishi2
 
1
Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Biomaterials, Heisenbergstraße 3, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
2
NIMS, MANA, Japan

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Cell migration plays a mayor role in many physiological and pathophysiological processes such as cancer progression. We use simple devises to study single cell migration or migration of cell collectives in spatially defined environments. Investigation of pancreas tumor cell migration in micro-channels revealed a drastic dependence on the structural properties of the cells' keratin cytoskeleton. In addition, the channel geometry seems to affect the migration phenotype if compared to the migration on micro-contact printed adhesive lines. Collective cell migration of well-defined cell clusters with different sizes and geometries is investigated by using bio-passivated photo-switchable surfaces. Experiments demonstrate how cluster size and initial geometry affects the formation of leader cells. Donut-shaped cell cluster show a remarkable asymmetric wound healing phenotype.
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