Use the Force

For a tumour to spread and grow, its cells must pull against the surrounding microenvironment of supporting molecules like elastic collagen. This jostling for space generates tension inside the cell – a struggle that drugs might exploit to limit cancerous growth. To investigate these forces, here researchers swap real tumours for lab-grown tumour ‘spheroids’ (black) which strain against the surrounding collagen under a microscope, creating starburst patterns of ‘deformations’ over a 12 hour period (top left to bottom right). Mathematical models simulate these patterns with the aim of predicting the contractility of different spheroids – how much their internal structure contracts when straining. Similar techniques could be used to predict the response of tumours growing in different tissue environments and provide a model for testing drugs aiming to push back on cancer.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

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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• Image from work by Christophe Mark, Thomas J Grundy, Pamela L Strissel and David Böhringer, and colleagues
• Department of Physics, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife, April 2020