The findings of the project also reveal how the same
mechanisms of cell migration remain intact in the course of evolution, making it possible to draw comparisons between fish and humans.
It actively engages biologists working on distinct molecular
mechanisms of cells migration and helps them interact beyond the boundaries of independent laboratories.
A study by Sofia J. Araújo, a Ramón y Cajal researcher with the Morphogenesis in Drosophila lab at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), elucidates the genetic
regulation of cell migration.
A team of researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston has developed technologies for precision measurement
of cell migration speed before and applied the new tool to study the variations of migration speed in population of cancer cells.
Researchers from the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Basel discovered novel mechanisms
of cell migration by observing cells moving on lines of connective tissue.
Microfluidic tools for precision
measurements of cell migration speed reveal that migratory speed of individual cells changes stochastically from parent cells to their descendants, while the average speed of the cell population remains constant through successive generations.
Failure to degrade RAPGEF2 in epithelial cells results in sustained activity of Rap1 and
inhibition of cell migration induced by HGF, a potent metastatic factor.
Why It Matters: This knowledge could lead to a better
understanding of cell migration in cancer metastasis and inflammatory disease, which in turn will help in the development of effective treatment methods.
The team from the Massachusetts General Hospital plans to use the microfluidic devices in synergy with some more sophisticated molecular biology tools and identify the control
factors of cell migration speed.
The scientists describe novel
concepts of cell migration, which could help to find new targets and approaches to fight cancer metastasis and inflammation.
Our insight will substantially enhance our understanding of dynamic cell shape regulation for instance in the
context of cell migration as in cancer metastasis or during morphogenesis.
Here we discuss the possible switch mechanism for the two modes of actin organisation and the advantages of each in the
perspective of cell migration and invasion during tumour metastasis.
This direct link between Exocyst and WRC complexes provides a novel mechanistic insight into the spatio - temporal
regulation of cell migration.
Inhibition of cell migration and invasion of enzalutamide - resistant prostate cancer cells was effected by niclosamide through its effects on the androgen receptor (AR)- STAT3 signaling axis [40].
«The more insights we get into the
mechanisms of cell migration, the more effectively and focused we will be able to intervene in certain pathological processes,» first author Dr. Katrin Martin comments.
The broad objective of our research is to understand how epithelial cells interact with their microenvironment during migration, focusing on the mechanism
of cell migration and the role of actin cytoskeleton in this process.