Achievement

Angela Valencia's research characterizes the growth dynamics of cancer cell spheroids in ECM components, form spheroids of HT1080 cell line—human fibrosarcoma. Fibrosarcoma is a type of cancer originating in the soft tissue; whose major component is type I collagen. My results suggest that low collagen concentrations (2mg/ml) facilitate cell movement, while high collagen concentration (6mg/ml) promotes proliferation. She is working on a mathematical model in collaboration with Prof. Sean Sun, who is a faculty member in the Mechanical Engineering dept. Our preliminary results from this model based on the cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesions, seem to describe what I observe experimentally. Higher cell-matrix adhesion correlates with higher cell density, possibly explaining higher cell proliferation of the cancer spheroids growing inside of the higher concentrated collagen gels. All of these advances in my research have been possible and motivated from discussion with other IGERT fellows.