Related papers: Microtubule polymerization generates microtentacle…
Angiogenesis, the formation of new vessels, is one of the key mechanisms in tumor development and an appealing target for therapy. Non-invasive, high-resolution, high sensitivity, quantitative 3D imaging techniques are required to correctly…
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is highly heterogeneous, with five-year survival rates dropping from $\sim$90% in localized disease to $\sim$15% with distant metastases. Disease progression is shaped not only by tumor-intrinsic alterations but also…
A theoretical model based on the molecular interactions between a growing tumor and a dynamically evolving blood vessel network describes the transformation of the regular vasculature in normal tissues into a highly inhomogeneous tumor…
Miniaturization is a hallmark of modern technologies. Notably, this feature has not spared molecular biology and its potential applications. Towards developing more effective therapeutics against cancer, studies began to explore more than a…
As cancer advances, cells often spread from the primary tumor to other parts of the body and form metastases. This is the main cause of cancer related mortality. Here we investigate a conceptually simple model of metastasis formation where…
Cancer cells can acquire a spectrum of stable hybrid epithelial/mesenchymal (E/M) states during epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Cells in these hybrid E/M phenotypes often combine epithelial and mesenchymal features and tend to…
Faithful segregation of genetic material during cell division requires alignment of chromosomes between two spindle poles and attachment of their kinetochores to each of the poles. Failure of these complex dynamical processes leads to…
Cells are strongly out-of-equilibrium systems driven by continuous energy supply. They carry out many vital functions requiring active transport of various ingredients and organelles, some being small, others being large. The cytoskeleton,…
During metastatic dissemination, streams of cells collectively migrate through a network of narrow channels within the extracellular matrix, before entering into the blood stream. This strategy is believed to outperform other migration…
Collections of cells exhibit coherent migration during morphogenesis, cancer metastasis, and wound healing. In many cases, bigger clusters split, smaller sub-clusters collide and reassemble, and gaps continually emerge. The connections…
We present a physical mechanism that can cause the mitotic spindle to oscillate. The driving force for this mechanism emerges from the polymerization of astral microtubules interacting with the cell cortex. We show that Brownian ratchet…
The early stages of the collective invasion may occur by single mesenchymal cells or hybrid epithelial-mesenchymal cell groups that detach from cancerous tissue. Tumors may also emit invading protrusions of epithelial cells, which could be…
Within microcentrifuge devices, a microfluidic vortex separates larger particles from a heterogeneous suspension using inertial migration, a phenomenon that causes particles to migrate across streamlines. The ability to selectively capture…
Coordinated cellular movements are key processes in tissue morphogenesis. Using a cell-based modeling approach we study the dynamics of epithelial layers lining surfaces with constant and varying curvature. We demonstrate that extrinsic…
The interplay between tumor cells and macrophages plays a central regulatory role in cancer progression. In this study, we developed a mathematical model that incorporates tumor cells, M1 type macrophages, M2 type macrophages and an M3 type…
The effect of curvature and how it induces and enhances the transport of colloidal particles driven through narrow channels represent an unexplored research avenue. Here we combine experiments and simulations to investigate the dynamics of…
Collective cell migration is crucial in many biological processes such as wound healing, tissue morphogenesis, and tumor progression. The leading front of a collective migrating epithelial cell layer often destabilizes into multicellular…
Metabolic substrates, such as oxygen and glucose, are rapidly delivered to the cell through filtration across microvessels walls. Modelling this important process is complicated by the coupling between flow and transport equations, which…
Immunoaffinity-based liquid biopsies of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) hold great promise for cancer management, but typically suffer from low throughput, relative complexity and post-processing limitations. Here we address these issues…
Microtubules, major elements of the cell skeleton are, most of the time, well organized in vivo, but they can also show self-organizing behaviors in time and/or space in purified solutions in vitro. Theoretical studies and models based on…