It is now indisputable that the biophysical and biochemical environment surrounding a tumor plays an equally important role in tumor invasion as the genetic makeup of the tumor. In this seminar, I will discuss about our efforts in understanding how single tumor cells use biochemical and biomechanical cues to ‘talk’ to their microenvironment, and how this communication dictates tumor cells’ decision to invade within a tissue like and three dimensional biopolymer network. Breast tumor cells and spheroids are used as model systems for these studies, microfluidic platforms are developed for re-creating physiologically realistic tumor microenvironment and advanced optical imaging for following molecular/cell dynamics of single tumor cells.

Biography: Mingming Wu is a Professor in the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University. She received her Ph. D. from the The Ohio State University in 1992 and a Bachelor of Science degree from Nanjing University in 1984.

Location: Participate by Zoom or join colleagues in Wngr 149. Masks required. Please ask people about their social distance preferences before seating yourself next to someone. The colloquium speaker will present remotely.