Date/Time
Date(s) - September 13, 2023
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Categories No Categories
About this event:
OncoEng, in particular its OncoEng+ network, together with colleagues at BioTrib are pleased to announce the following seminar, by Professor Delphine Gourdon
Title: Mechanobiology/mechanoadaptation of cancer cells through fibronectin-collagen ECM remodelling
Abstract:
During mammary development, mammary epithelial cells repetitively invade the surrounding stroma to form ducts. During this process, epithelial cells adopt temporary cancer-like phenotypes and actively remodel the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM). Because high mammographic tissue density, usually attributed to the presence of collagen, is a well-known risk factor for breast cancer, it is relevant to investigate the microarchitectural changes occurring in the collagen matrix during ‘cyclic’ cell movement, and its resulting effects on matrix/tissue mechanics that could potentially contribute to the formation of a tumour niche. In this study, we used temperature casting to engineer fibrillar collagen scaffolds with controlled microarchitecture and mechanics (elasticity and viscosity), and we monitored changes in ECM remodelling upon successive rounds of cancer cell seedings to mimic progressive cycles of epithelial movement during mammary development. Our data indicate that both the bundling and the reorientation of matrix fibres occurring under cancer cell adhesion and tension (in both 2D and 3D environments) depend mainly on the underlying matrix microarchitecture rather than on its mechanics. Subsequently, the local increase in density and stiffness of the remodelled matrix further affects cell response (morphology, integrin expression, proliferation) suggesting that cyclic/repeated cancer cell movements might be able to trigger epithelial-mesenchymal transition and enable cells to migrate away from the primary tumour and initiate metastasis.
Bio:
Delphine Gourdon is the Principal Investigator of the Mechanobiology and Tribology Group and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the James Watt School of Engineering of University of Glasgow (UK). Before joining Glasgow in 2020, Delphine was Associate Professor at the Physics Department of University of Ottawa (ON, Canada) from 2016 and Assistant Professor at the Materials and Engineering Department of Cornell University (NY, USA) from 2009. Delphine has 65+ publications in leading international journals and has been Principal Investigator in a number of national and international grants. She won the prestigious NSF-CAREER Award in the USA in 2014 (National Science Foundation, Biomaterials Division). She was then awarded a CFI-JELF grant in Canada in 2017 (Canada Foundation for Innovation). More recently, she was the recipient of a Wolfson Research Merit Award from the Royal Society (UK). Delphine’s current research interests focus on (i) molecular and cellular mechanotransduction processes through the extracellular matrix in cancer microenvironments and (ii) biolubrication in healthy and diseased joints.
OncoEng
OncoEng is a UKRI EPSRC funded flagship programme grant concerned with research into the identification and prophylactic intervention of metastatic bone disease in the spine. It comprises a collaboration between the University of Leeds, Imperial College London and University College London. OncoEng+ network brings together a researchers and innovators from a wide set of disciplines with the UK and abroad to tackle the challenges that underpin cancer using engineering and the physical sciences.
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