EMT: Cancer Cells Grow On Microchip

Nobody wants to be diagnosed with any form of cancer, but scientists in search of more effective treatments are studying those nasty cancer cells in new and exciting ways.

In an article in Gizmodo you can watch cancer cells scurry across the surface of a microchip. It’s an image of a process called epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT).

“For this study, published in the journal Nature Materials, researchers were able to image cancer cells that had undergone epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a process in which epithelial cells, which tend to stick together within a tissue, change into mesenchymal cells, which then disperse and migrate individually. This, explains EurekaAlert, is a beneficial process that allows cells to travel throughout an embryo and establish specialized tissues. For this study, the cells migrated across a device that mimics the tissue surrounding a tumor.”

Photo: Gizmodo