Invasion: How cancer cells spread around the Body

Ninety per cent of cancer deaths occur when the neoplasm spreads beyond the primary tumor and invades other organs. This process, known as metastasis, normally signals a sharp deterioration in prognosis. The manner in which cancer cells migrate around the body remains an ill-understood process, but it is clearly a topic in which physical science is deeply involved. Normally cells quit the primary tumor and enter either the lymph system of the blood system (“intravasation”).
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Workshop exploring the links between chromatin configurations, gene expression, nuclear morphology and cancer.

The DNA in every human cell is about two metres long. Somehow it has to be packed into the tiny cell nucleus. Which presents nature with a problem: how can a thread so long be compacted without excessive tangling and knotting? Furthermore, in order for genes to be read, they need to be exposed to enzymes. That requires the DNA to be continually unraveled and re-packaged in an exquisitely precise and controlled manner. The first level of compaction is understood: the famous double-helix of DNA is wound around little reels made of proteins called histones, like beads on a string, forming what is referred to as chromatin. Many more levels of folding and wrapping produce the structures known as chromosomes, familiar from photographs of cell nuclei.
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Quantum Mechanics and Cancer Biology

The conjecture that quantum mechanics plays a key role in life dates back to the 1940s, and Erwin Schrödinger’s famous book “What is Life?” However, decades later, most scientists still assume that classical ball and stick models suffice in the realm of molecular biology. Recently there have been claims that quantum effects are essential in at least two biological processes – photosynthesis and bird navigation.
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Cellular Differentiation and Response to Stress: Modeling Cancer Initiation and Progression

Co-organizers: Thea Tlsty and Timothy Newman

The Sedona Workshop was held under the auspices of the Arizona State University Physical Sciences Oncology Center, and was the third in the series of focused workshops on different aspects of cancer. The core focus of this workshop was the differential response of tumor cells to environmental stress. This central issue was approached by three groups: i) experts in the cancer field, ranging from cell biologists to bioinformaticists to pathologists, ii) biologists and bioengineers with expertise in cell differentiation in the context of stem cells and developmental biology, and iii) a cadre of biological modelers, with backgrounds in physics, engineering, and mathematics.

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Understanding cancer in the context of evolutionary biology, how neoplasms evolve within the host organism, the nonlinear feedback between cancer cells and stroma, and how cancer behaves as a complex adaptive system. Emphasis will be on the application of dynamical systems theory, game theory, systems biology and related fields of inquiry to cancer and its progression to malignancy. The goal of the workshop is to determine how tumor growth, tissue invasion and metastasis might be understood and even controlled via these dynamical properties.

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• 
  Interview with Pepper J. Schedin,Ph.D.

  In February 2010, the Beyond Center at ASU hosted a workshop on the Mechanical Properties of Cancer Cells.  One of the liveliest contributors in a very lively meeting was Pepper J. Schedin, Ph.D, Professor of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado Cancer Center.  She discussed her research into the causes of breast cancer and, in particular, the causes of breast cancer in new mothers.   Here she talks to Pauline Davies.

  More Info: http://www.uchsc.edu/reproductive-sciences/faculty/schedin.htm[audio:http://cancer-insights.rtd.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Pepper-Schedin-interview.mp3|titles=Pepper-Schedin-interview]

Atomic Force Microscopy(ATM) Workshop April 15-16 2010.

Facilitators: Stuart Lindsay and Robert Ros

Location: Agilent, Chandler and ASU campus, Tempe.
This workshop welcomed 10 scientists from Northwestern PSOC, Oregon Health Sciences Center, University of Texas and Arizona State University to be trained in scanning probe theory and practice.

Day 1:
Morning lectures in AFM theory and applications at Agilent Technologies in Chandler, Arizona http://www.home.agilent.com/
Afternoon: Hands-on training at Agilent

Day 2:
All day in lab receiving hands-on experience in the labs of Dr Robert Ros in physics and Dr Stuart Lindsay in Biodesign, Arizona State University.

Agenda | Attendees

• Interview with Scott McRae

  Matthew Wilson, a student in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication interviews fellow undergraduate Scott McRae, who makes videos about the physical sciences and cancer projects at ASU.

  [audio:http://cancer-insights.rtd.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Matt-and-Scott-interview.mp3|titles=Matt-and-Scott-interview]

Mechanical properties of cancer cells

No area of research better illustrates the constructive engagement of physics and cancer biology than the burgeoning field of cell mechanics. This workshop focused on the mechanical properties of healthy and cancer cells and the surrounding tissues. It covered topics such as changes in the elastic properties of cancer cells, the internal chemical and genetic changes triggered by the physical properties of the micro-environment (such as its hardness or surface adhesion) and the motility of cells, with special emphasis on metastasis. It brought together physicists, oncologists, cancer biologists, engineers and computer scientists, with the goal of determining whether cancer could be better understood and even controlled by manipulating the physical properties of the cancer cells’ environment.
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