Cancer and viral threats in the crosshairs as AIBN researchers win IDEAS grants
Published on: 18 December 2024
Stehbens Group
Cytoskeleton and cell motility
Cells in living organisms navigate highly crowded three-dimensional environments, where their coordinated migration provides the driving force behind developmental and homeostatic tissue maintenance.
Cells moving in 3D environments constantly experience fluctuating bio-physical forces which they convert into bio-chemical signals in a process termed ‘mechano-sensing’, allowing cells to alter their shape to fit the physical attributes of the microenvironment.
Cells frequently need to navigate through tight or confined spaces such as pores in between matrix fibres. Our understanding of the molecular and mechanical principles of how cells
- Detect these physical limits,
- Deform their cortex whilst producing mechanical force for forward locomotion and
- Orient themselves to move through tissues, remains elusive.
Our research aims to understand the fundamental principles underpinning how cells integrate chemical and physical signals from their local microenvironment to facilitate cell movement and survival. We apply these findings to understand how cancer cells exploit this to metastasise or spread to distal tissues and how the local microenvironment promotes tumour cell survival. We hypothesise that targeting the crosstalk between the cytoskeleton and the mechanical micro-environment, can be developed as an anti-metastatic approach.
Research Areas
- Cytoskeleton
- Cell migration and invasion
- Cell mechanics/mechanobiology
- Cell adhesion
- Live-cell microscopy
- Cancer cell biology
- Cancer cell biology
Research Approach
Our research program aims to define how the cytoskeleton facilitates cellular movement, fitness, and survival in mechanically demanding environments. To do this we have innovative, novel microfabrication confinement tools and 3D hydrogel models which can be coupled to fluorescent biosensors and high-resolution live-cell imaging to study cellular responses to confinement and compression.
Research Highlights
Funding
Since 2019
- QUANTIC Queensland Advanced Non-Linear Tissue-biomaterials Imaging Capacity (2026) Australian Research Council Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LEIF LE260100152)
- Understanding how cells withstand compression in crowded environments (2026-2029) Australian Research Council Discovery Project
- A platform for in situ structural biology (Monash led)(2025) Australian Research Council Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LEIF LE250100012)
- Understanding microtubule-dependent cell invasion to develop antimetastasis strategies. (2025-2029) NHMRC Ideas Grant
- Discovering therapeutic vulnerabilities of circulating melanoma clusters
(2024–2027) United States Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs - Melanoma Research Program - Integrating innovative models of the brain microenvironment to identify new treatment strategies for medulloblastoma
(2023–2024) The Cure Starts Now Foundation - Integrating innovative models of the brain microenvironment to identify new treatment strategies for medulloblastoma
(2022–2026) The Cure Starts Now Australia - Microenvironmental regulation of melanoma brain metastasis
(2022–2025) United States Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs - Melanoma Research Program - Integrating innovative models of the brain microenvironment to identify new treatment strategies for medulloblastoma
(2020–2024) Brainchild Foundation - Regulation of 3D Cell Migration by Microtubule-Dependent Processes
(2020–2023) ARC Future Fellowships
Publications
Click here to view Stehbens group publications
