Beginning of Metastasis....

Description of the photo
Cancer metastasis represents an advanced stage of malignancy, leading to cancer-related deaths. Metastasis is a multistep process that includes migration and invasion of cancer cells in a new region. The images here represent a migrated breast cancer cell ready to proliferate under an invitro condition. Cell migration is an integrated process including development of cellular protrusions, attachment, and then causing secondary changes. We have observed protruding actin cytoskeleton (red) while attaching to an extracellular matrix. This resulted in rapid changes in mitochondrial dynamics (green) during attachment (fusion) and at cell division (fission). Since mitochondria has diverse role in cellular functioning, we believe this might help us to understand the role of mitochondria in this world of cancer metastasis.
Author
Name: Priya Gatti
Affiliation: UQTR
Edition: 2020, Winner of the 2nd prize of the competition.