Tag : Mineralization

Washington: Tumour cells are known to be fickle sleepers, typically lying dormant in distant tissues for years before reactivating and producing metastasis. Numerous elements, ranging from cells and molecules to other components in the so-called tissue microenvironment, have been researched to determine why activation occurs. Now, an interdisciplinary Cornell team has identified a new mechanism regulating tumor growth in the skeleton, the primary site of breast cancer metastasis: mineralization of the bone matrix, a fibrous mesh of organic and inorganic components that determines the unique biochemical and biomechanical properties of our skeleton. Health News: Tiny, Flexible Spinal Probe System May Lead To Better Therapies: Study [https://www.thehawk.in/posts/tiny-flexible-spinal-probe-system-may-lead-to-better-therapies:-study] The team’s paper, “Bone-Matrix Mineralization Dampens Integrin-Mediated Mechanosignalling and Metastatic Progression in Breast Cancer,” published Aug. 7 in Nature Biomedical Engineering. The co-lead authors are research associate Siyoung Choi and doctoral student Matthew Whitman. The project is the latest collaboration between co-senior authors Claudia Fischbach, the Stanley Bryer 1946 Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Lara Estroff, the Herbert Fisk Johnson Professor of Industrial Chemistry, both in Cornell Engineering, who together have been exploring the metastatic spread of breast cancer to bone for more than a decade. Fischbach’s lab uses biomaterials in combination with cellular and tissue engineering approaches to understand how the tissue microenvironment regulates cancer in different contexts, while Estroff’s group specializes in biomineralization – the way biological organisms control the g ...