Deadline:
February 29, 2008
Home
Summer 2008 Research
Opportunities
Application Form
|
Project Title:
Engineering cell microenvironments for functional control and diagnostics
|
| Primary Investigator:
Professor Franz Baudenbacher
|
Brief Description of Project:
The research project focuses on the development of
nano- and microtechnology methods to initiate and probe the locomotory actin-based
machinery involved in cancer cell migration during metastasis. The mechanical properties
of sub-cellular invasive motility organelles (invadopodia) will be probed using magnetic
nanoparticles capped with metallic hemispheres, high resolution optical particle tracking,
magnetic twisting cytometry, and 3D magnetic tweezers. Migration will be controlled in
microfluidic-based microenvironments. Experiments using controlled attachment to actin fiber
networks will lead to a quantitative understanding of the interaction of the nanoparticle and
its surroundings. These quantitative techniques will be applied to define how stiffness varies
in different supramolecular components during the dynamic formation of invasive motility structures
of cancer cells. These studies offer the potential to identify molecular targets that could be use
to efficiently disable invadopodia and metastasis.
|
Nature of Supervision:
Work under the direct supervision of Professor Franz Baudenbacher and members of the Baudenbacher
Research Laboratory and the Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education.
|
Contact Information:
Franz Baudenbacher, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering,
f.baudenbacher@vanderbilt.edu
|
|
