Credit: Joseph Campanale
Cell Motility
A major interest of the lab focuses on cell motility. Without cell migrations embryos could not develop, wounds would not heal and the nervous and immune systems could neither form nor function. But cell movements have a dark side, and the ability to move also contributes to tumor metastasis, which is a major cause of death for cancer patients. We developed an in vivo model for the study of collective, cooperative, cell-on-cell motility and employ a powerful combination of molecular genetics, live imaging, and optogenetics techniques to decipher the molecular mechanisms that determine when, where, and how cells move together.
