Gap Hazard

When cells travel or migrate, they must journey through an extra-cellular environment of rough and smooth regions littered with microscopic chasms that are challenging to cross. This human cell, highlighted with a yellow fluorescent protein, is stretching out across a series of gaps – a bit like stepping stones, although 100,000 times smaller. The cell uses bundles of actin filaments to poke its membrane towards the other side – these protrusions, known as lamellipodia, latch on to fibronectin proteins (purple) and pull across. Researchers found T-plastin, a protein which helps to bundle actin together, is essential to bridging these gaps – offering an important target for drugs helping migrating cells to heal wounds, or blocking cancer cells from invading healthy tissues.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

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A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Video from work by Damien Garbett and colleagues
• Department of Chemical and Systems Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
• Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Nature Communications, September 2020