Schneider Research Group

Engineering Cell Dynamics

Adhesion and Cytoskeleton Dynamics

Cancer Cell-Immune Cell Paracrine Interactions

Coincidence Detectors

for Cancer Diagnostics

Engineering Multi-cue

Migrational Environments

Engineering Multi-cue Migrational Environments:

The goal of this project is to use several engineering techniques to create simplified, yet fully tunable in vitro migration platforms. These platforms will be used to assess how cells make migrational decisions when multiple cues are presented. During cancer progression, stromal cells remodel collagen fibers that surround the growing tumor. Cancer cells then migrate out of the tumor along those remodeled fibers, a process called contact guidance. Additionally, immune cells secrete soluble factors, generating concentration gradients. Cancer cells migrate up gradients of soluble proteins such as epidermal growth factor (EGF) towards blood vessels, a process called chemotaxis. Cues for both contact guidance and chemotaxis are presented simultaneously in vivo, however they can be spatially organized such that each gives contradictory information to the cell. While there is a firm understanding of how cells respond to individual contact guiding and chemotactic cues, virtually nothing is known about how cells integrate multiple cues and make migrational decisions based on that integration. I am taking an engineering approach by designing in vitro environments that mimic the in vivo environment with the added ability to independently tune directional cues.