New organelle involved in cancer metastasis discovered 10 Mar 2021 Some of Princeton s leading cancer researchers were startled to discover that what they thought was a straightforward investigation into how cancer spreads through the body - metastasis - turned up evidence of liquid-liquid phase separations: the new field of biology research that investigates how liquid blobs of living materials merge into each other, similar to the movements seen in a lava lamp or in liquid mercury. We believe this is the first time that phase separation has been implicated in cancer metastasis, said Yibin Kang, the Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor of Molecular Biology.
Team discovers new organelle involved in cancer metastasis
March 10, 2021Princeton
Some of Princeton’s leading cancer researchers were startled to discover that what they thought was a straightforward investigation into how cancer spreads through the body metastasis turned up evidence of liquid-liquid phase separations: the new field of biology research that investigates how liquid blobs of living materials merge into each other, similar to the movements seen in a lava lamp or in liquid mercury.
“We believe this is the first time that phase separation has been implicated in cancer metastasis,” said Yibin Kang, the Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor of Molecular Biology. He is the senior author on a new paper featured on the cover of the current issue of Nature Cell Biology.
Princeton cancer researchers Mark Esposito and Yibin Kang discovered a new, still-unnamed organelle that plays a role in bone metastasis and is formed via liquid-liquid phase separation when liquid blobs of living materials merge into each other. “We believe this is the first time that phase separation has been implicated in cancer metastasis,” said Kang.
Cell mapping expert receives HHMI diversity fellowship with eight years of support
Scott Lyon, Office of Engineering Communications
Feb. 18, 2021 1 p.m.
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has named Princeton postdoctoral researcher Sofia Quinodoz a 2020 Hanna Gray Fellow, bolstering her study into how the structures within cells contribute to disease.
Quinodoz will receive up to $1.4 million over the next eight years, funding her bioengineering research at Princeton and granting her startup funds for an unspecified future role as a principal investigator. Quinodoz, whose family emigrated from Argentina in the mid-1980s, earned her bachelor s degree in molecular biology from Princeton in 2013. The HHMI fellowship connects her to a growing network of diverse, early career researchers who are tackling the most urgent problems in the life sciences.