Disseminating melanoma cells surf on calcium waves

Disseminating melanoma cells surf on calcium waves

Dysregulated calcium signaling has been increasingly implicated in tumor dissemination and progression. In a recent study we investigated the mechanism underlying calcium-mediated melanoma invasion and metastasis, and discovered that hyperactive Ca2+ oscillation in melanoma cells promoted invasion and metastasis through promoting invadopodium formation and extracellular matrix remodeling.

Metastases in the breast from disseminating melanoma.

Electrons surf to high energies on plasma waves

THE accelerators used by particle physicists need to be many kilometres long to reach the energies at which new particles such as the Higgs boson are expected to be found. The particles are accelerated by electric fields, and accelerator designers are always looking for ways to increase the electric field strength since this will reduce the length of the machine. One possibility that has been i...

Surfing on Calcium Waves

A key question in brain development is how migration of neuronal precursors is guided to establish the ordered laminar layers. In the April 20, 2007 issue of Cell, Guan et al. show that the leading process of migrating cerebellar granule neurons senses repulsive Slit molecules by generating a Ca(2+) wave that propagates to the soma to cause reversal of cell polarity and migration.

Large herbivores surf waves of green-up during spring.

The green wave hypothesis (GWH) states that migrating animals should track or 'surf' high-quality forage at the leading edge of spring green-up. To index such high-quality forage, recent work proposed the instantaneous rate of green-up (IRG), i.e. rate of change in the normalized difference vegetation index over time. Despite this important advancement, no study has tested the assumption that h...