Tumour
Biology
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Tumour
Biology |
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Main Groups Associated
Bodies |
Tumour Biology Laboratory Tumour Biology Laboratory Please also see the Institute of Cancer's web pages at the Barts and The London,
Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry. Tumour spread requires cancer cells to employ homotypic and heterotypic cellular adherence as well as the ability to interact with extracellular matrix (ECM) components via various adhesion receptors. These cell surface molecules do not, however, act simply as “rivets” to attach the cells to appropriate substrates but also act as generators of survival and/or proliferation signals and modulate changes in gene expression. Accordingly the investigation of the role of these molecules in cancer metastasis is an important goal in understanding the overall biological behaviour of secondary tumour establishment, development and growth. The group is using a range of cellular and molecular pathology techniques to investigate the role of specific adhesion receptor molecules (specifically members of the integrin heterodimer family) and associated molecules in the migration and invasion of specific tumour types. Such investigations have necessitated the development of a range of assays capable of analysing cellular migration under 2-D and 3-D constraints. We are equipped with low-level light microscopy to monitor migration of living GFP-tagged tumour cells, confocal microscopy to determine co-localisation of molecules and co-culture systems which allow invasion of tumour cells, in the presence of different substrates or fibroblast populations, to be monitored quantitatively.
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