We are back on Monday 6th March 6-8pm with Prof.Laura Machesky giving a talk on "Models of the cancer metastatic niche"
Description:
Cancer metastasis is responsible for the vast majority of deaths from cancer. There are very few options for treating metastasis and it is difficult to even design clinical trials for potential anti-metastatic drugs. I will discuss our attempts to create better models of the cancer metastatic niche, in hopes of finding new ways to combat metastatic disease.
Biography:
Professor Laura Machesky is currently the Sir William Dunn Professor of Biochemistry, having recently moved to Cambridge from Glasgow. Her group uses cell biology and cancer models to study actin dynamics, adhesion and membrane trafficking and how these fundamental cell processes guide migration, cancer invasion and metastasis. Her group is interested in how cells sense physical parameters of their environment and adapt their signaling and metabolic flux in response to environmental stimuli. She collaborates with bioengineers and physicists to develop reproducible and tuneable tools for modelling normal and cancerous cell and tissue function. She is currently president of the British Society for Cell Biology, a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Academy of Medical Sciences.