Engineering and Physical Approaches to Cancer

Michelle R. Dawson is an Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry at Brown University. She received her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Louisiana Tech University and Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. She also completed postdoctoral training in the Edwin L. Steele Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital before beginning her independent research program. The Dawson Cell Biophysics Lab uses quantitative cell biophysical analysis to understand cancer biology, and her current research provides detailed biophysical insight on cancer cell signaling pathways, tumor cell heterogeneity, cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions in the tumor, and mechanisms contributing to therapy induced resistance. Ian Y. Wong is an Associate Professor of Engineering and of Pathology / Laboratory Medicine at Brown University. He received his A.B. magna cum laude in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University and then received a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University. He completed postdoctoral training in the Center for Engineering in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, then started his independent faculty position at Brown University. His lab uses biomaterials, mechanobiology, and microfluidics to reverse-engineer tumor invasion and metastasis.

Chapter 1. EMT.- Chapter 2. Nuclear/Chromatin Mechanics.- Chapter 3. Cell level mechanical changes.- Chapter 4. Physical aspects related to metabolism.- Chapter 5. Mechanical tropism / Physical aspects of seed and soil.- Chapter 6. Tumor microenvironment interactions.- Chapter 7. Extracellular Matrix.- Chapter 8. Physical Assays Focused on Tumor Heterogeneity.- Chapter 9. Ecology / evolution of the tumor microenvironment.- Chapter 10. Spatial transcriptomics / proteomics in the Human Tumor Atlas.