Quantitative approaches to understanding signaling regulation of 3D cell migration

For many cancers, dissemination of tumor cells to form metastases is not only a hallmark of the disease but an essential step to mortality. Migration and dissemination are complex, multistep processes, and study of their regulation has been challenging. Metastases need only be driven by a rare subpopulation of tumor cells, and a portion of dissemination is necessarily interaction with the cell's environment and thus cell extrinsic. Experimentally, there is additional uncertainty as exactly how to best assess migration outside of the complex in vivo environment. To develop a systems perspective of invasive disease, we first examine some of the experimental models used to study cell migration. We then apply this knowledge to examine regulation by proteases of endometrial cell invasion, and the pro-migratory effects of receptor crosstalk in breast carcinoma cells. Finally, extending from clear limitations in our knowledge of signaling regulation specifically within the invasive subpopulation of cells, we develop a model of ligand-mediated signaling for a receptor often expressed specifically during the process of dissemination. In total, this thesis extends systems biology techniques to the study of cell migration within the extracellular environment, with focus on that subpopulation of cells most directly implicated in the formation of metastatic disease.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Meyer, Aaron Samuel

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Douglas A. Lauffenburger and Frank B. Gertler.

• Biological Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/90149

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/90149