Characterizing the role of focal adhesions in breast cancer epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT)

Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a natural process in the body related to the development of an embryo, wound healing, and cancer metastasis. In EMT the cell separates from the basement membrane and loses its connections with neighboring cells, allowing it to become more mobile. These more mesenchymal cells are now free to infiltrate other areas of the body through the lymphatic or circulatory systems. Cell mobility is facilitated through focal adhesion (FA) complexes that determine the degree of adhesion of the cells to the extracellular matrix (ECM). This is mainly facilitated by the integrin receptors outside of the cell, which cycle back and forth from an activated, high adhesion state. Activation and clustering of integrins is caused by other FA adaptor proteins just inside the cell membrane, such as Talin 1, Paxillin, and Vinculin, that forms a complex with the cytoskeleton within the cell. We hypothesize that these FA proteins are important for the regulation of EMT in breast cancer. In order to investigate this, we have built a quantitative imaging pipeline that integrates FA and cellular morphometrics with cell migration outcomes.