Nanotechnology Now - Press Release: Podcast: Nanotech method to study cell detachment could lead to improved cancer therapies

Home > Press > Podcast: Nanotech method to study cell detachment could lead to improved cancer therapies

Peter Searson

Abstract:
"…We know that processes like cell detachment are important in cancer metastasis, where cells become detached from tumors…" Peter Searson

Podcast: Nanotech method to study cell detachment could lead to improved cancer therapies

Baltimore, MD | Posted on December 2nd, 2009

Cancer spreads from organ to organ when cells break free from one site and travel to another. Understanding this process, known as metastasis, is critical for developing ways to prevent the spread and growth of cancer cells. Peter Searson, Reynolds Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in the Whiting School of Engineering and director of the Institute for NanoBioTechnology, led a team of engineers who have developed a method to specifically measure detachment in individual cells.

The method, which uses lab-on-a-chip technology, allows researchers to observe and record the exact point when a cell responds to electrochemical cues in its environment and releases from the surface upon which it is growing. Better knowledge of the biochemistry of cell detachment could point the way to better cancer therapies. In this "Great Ideas" podcast, Elizabeth Tracey, communications associate for the School of Medicine, interviews Searson about this current research.

To listen: inbt.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/searsonfinal06011.mp3

Related links:

You can watch a video and read more about Searson's method of studying cell detachment here: inbt.jhu.edu/lab-on-a-chip-shows-how-cells-break-free/2009/03/18

Peter Searson's INBT profile page: inbt.jhu.edu/research/faculty/profile/peter-searson

This podcast was originally posted to the Johns Hopkins University "Great Ideas" web page. To view the original posting: http://www.jhu.edu/news/podcasts/

####

About Johns Hopkins
The Institute for NanoBioTechnology at Johns Hopkins University brings together 193 researchers from: Bloomberg School of Public Health, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, School of Medicine, Applied Physics Laboratory, and Whiting School of Engineering to create new knowledge and new technologies at the interface of nanoscience and medicine.

For more information, please click here

Contacts:
For media inquiries contact:
Mary Spiro
mspiro@jhu.edu
410 516-4802

If you have a comment, please Contact us.

Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.

Bookmark: