Despite major advances in cancer biology, we do not fully understand the molecular cues that trigger metastasis. Cancer cells need to leave behind their organ of origin, travel through the blood or lymph node system, and re-establish themselves in a new tissue. This requires cancer cells to break their adhesion with their neighbors and gain the ability to migrate. Bioengineer Mohit Kumar Jolly, along with his experimental collaborators, developed a model combining theoretical physics and experimental biology to identify cancer cells that can both adhere and migrate, thereby allowing cancer cells to travel in clusters and achieve higher chances of forming a secondary tumor. This work highlights the value of integrating theory and experiments to provide new insights into the underlying principles of cancer metastasis and progression.
This talk is part of the Young Scientist Seminars, a video series produced that features young scientists giving talks about their research and discoveries.
Dr. Mohit Kumar Jolly earned his Bachelors and Masters degrees at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK), India. There he began to recognize the promise of mathematics or theoretical physics to understand complex biological systems. He joined Dr. Herbert Levine at Rice University in Texas for his PhD to study the intrinsic characteristics of… Continue Reading