Investigating the Mechanobiology of Cancer

Cancer is the second-leading cause for death globally and there is a high demand for novel approaches to understand and treat cancer. Only recently it has become clear that mechanical forces play an important role in cancer initiation but in particular in cancer progression. Forces are for example exerted on cancer cells by the surrounding tissue and extracellular matrix, but the growing tumor is also generating mechanical forces itself. Currently, there are many open questions how these forces are sensed (mechanosensing) and how mechanical forces are translated into biochemical signalling (mechanotransduction). Targeting these signalling pathways is an important novel cancer therapy strategy. This project aims in particular to understand the role of extracellular matrix stiffness in tumor progression. The project will investigate the mechanisms how extracellular matrix stiffness is sensed, how it regulates mechanotransduction and how this contributes to cancer cell proliferation and migration. Our research will likely identify novel drug targets enabling innovative cancer therapy strategies.

Techniques: Live-confocal microscopy, super-resolution microscopy, 2D and 3D cell cultures, hydrogels of different stiffness, proximity biotinylation experiments combined with mass spectrometry, western-blotting, RNA-seq. experiments.

Science Graduate School

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