YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDW4Q8-5NWU

Metastasis is the leading cause of cancer related mortality, but its complexity and multiscale nature hinder efforts towards the development of targeted treatments. Recent studies have demonstrated that there are a number of mechanical properties that are associated with the metastatic phenotype, including force generation, deformability, and motile capabilities. In our work, we develop an integrated approach to computationally and experimentally study the fundamental intracellular mechanical features that give rise to the physical characteristics observed in cancer cells. Computationally, we perform Brownian dynamics simulations of active actin networks, with actin filaments, mechanosensitive crosslinkers, and processive myosin II motors, and we measure network morphologies, internal stresses, and shear moduli. Experimentally, we conduct intracellular particle-tracking microrheology experiments of cancer cells in 3D in an environmentally tunable microfluidic device in order to understand cancer cell mechanics in physiologically-mimicking conditions.