Cancer cell division and the mechanical environment

Cancer is caused by abnormal cells that continuously grow and divide, without regard to external cues. This allows them to thrive in conditions that normal cells would not usually tolerate, for example, under high compression in a primary tumour. My research asks how cancer cells adapt to grow and divide in such extremes of mechanical environment.

In order to withstand external force and generate enough space to build a mitotic spindle, cells change shape to become spherical before they divide. They also change mechanical properties to become stiffer, allowing them to push outwards against their environment. I study how these dynamic changes to cell shape and mechanics are regulated during cell division and how this process is altered in cancer cells to allow them to divide under higher compressive forces than normal cells.

I am using micro-fabrication to construct artificial micro-environments where the physical and biochemical conditions to which cells are exposed can be tightly controlled. I use this technology, in combination with cell biology and microscopy, to study how the genetic changes in cancer cells allow them to successfully complete cell division in various mechanical and biochemical niches.