Probing cancer cell response upon mechanical or chemical stimuli

There are number of evidences indicating that both tumour micro-environment and mechanics are playing an important role in the malignant transformation of cells and resistance to treatment. We try to take into account these important issues (micro-environment and mechanics) by developing original techniques enabling to precisely control cell micro-environment, including the applied mechanical stress.

In particular, we have developed agarose-based microsystems that enable a precise control of cell micro-environment in terms of mechanics (stiffness, stress) and transport of molecules (through a porous matrix). Combined with multipositions time-lapse microscropy and image analysis, we are able to decipher cell response in-situ in such confined situation, at the single cell level and over space and time.

In this seminar, I will first present our agarose-based microsystems, before describing results obtained for 2D or 3D confinement, as well as how these systems can be used to assess transport and therapeutic efficacy of novel nano-therapeutics in a more physiological environment than the classical 2D in vitro assay used. As such, it could be a valuable tool to assess the interplay between mechanics and biochemical signaling in the progression of cancer.