Thanks Johanna!

And a special thanks to our many collaborators and funding from the @melanomaresearch.bsky.social‬, @NIH_CommonFund, @theNCI and @ludwigcancer.bsky.social‬

My favorite part? This was driven by Miranda’s curiosity. She noticed that the cells in the tumor looked squeezed, and then followed the trail all the way to mechanism and implications.

The implications are pretty clear: while DNA mutations and chemical signals from the environment are important, physical pressure is just as important in letting cancer cells take on new behaviours.

Using a combination of #zebrafish and human #melanoma cells, she discovered that when cells are mechanically confined, this turns up chromatic factors like HMGB2, rewiring them to be more invasive and drug resistant.