Beautiful, But Deadly

Emily Richardson - PhD Student

Cancer cells can manipulate their shape in order to move around the body more in the process of metastasis.

This lung cancer cell is producing more filopodia - the beautiful, tentacle-like structures protruding out from the cell. Filopodia sense the environment around the cell, allowing it to feel its way around towards positive stimuli. These cells move extremely fast by hijacking normal mechanisms which control production of these structures. Image details: nucleus (red), actin cytoskeleton (cyan), associated protein cortactin (orange).

Image taken on Visitech HAWK confocal microscope in the Advanced Imaging Facility.