Abstract: Clinically, the feel, touch, and shape of a solid tumor are important diagnostic methods for assessing malignant stage of the tumor. Mechanistically, how tumor mechanics relates to their invasiveness is not well established. Tumor cell invasion within a 3D interstitial space is a critical step in metastatic cascade of cancer. In this talk, I will discuss about my lab’s work on tumor cell/tissue mechanics and its relation to their subsequent invasion within a 3D extracellular matrix. I will highlight two technological tools developed in my lab, a 3D cell traction force microscopy to dissect the reciprocal mechanical interactions between single cells and ECMs and a high throughput microfluidic rheometer for studies of tumor spheroid mechanics in a physiologically realistic setting.

BIO: Mingming Wu is a professor in the Biological and Environmental engineering department at Cornell University. Her lab studies cell migration in response to biophysical and biochemical cues within its environment. An equally important thrust of the lab is to build microfluidic and imaging tools to facilitate these studies. Dr. Wu received her PhD in Physics from the Ohio State University, followed by a postdoctoral position at Ecole Polytechnique in Paris and University of California at Santa Barbara. She was an assistant professor in the physics department at Occidental College in Los Angeles before joining College of Engineering at Cornell University in 2003. Dr. Wu was an elected fellow of the American Physical Society