Research

Explosive Evolution under Stress: The Driving Forces of Cancer Dynamics

The Princeton Physical Sciences-Oncology Center (PPS-OC) takes a physics-based approach to understanding the evolution of cancer resistance. Despite considerable progress in curing a subset of cancers, resistance evolution continues to be an intractable problem. As a result, overall mortality rates for most cancers have been flat to rising over the past 50 years. By coupling the physical sciences with cancer biology, and employing a rigorous quantitative approach, the PS-OC forges a new path to investigate the problem of resistance evolution in cancer. Current research is organized around four interconnected projects.

Bacterial Model Ecologies: Builds on research conducted by the PPS-OC principal investigator Robert Austin (Princeton) using micro-fabrication technologies to create complex bacterial ecosystems with variable stress conditions in order to test may of the fundamental physics-based questions related to the explosive evolution of resistance. Click to read more

Mammalian Cells and Ecosystems: Continues the research of PPS-OC senior co-investigator and project team leader, Thea Tlsty (UCSF) using various therapeutic agents and stressors to recapitulate rapid cell evolution and resistance. This project explores the genomic, epigenic and proteomic evolution of breast cancer cell ecology. Click to read more

Mechanical Signaling and Metastasis: This project undertakes a generalized “mechanical” analysis of the phenotype of cancer cells by examining the mechanisms of stress-induced phenotypic changes in cell and chromatin structure that play a critical role in evolution.
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Physical Ecology Design and Capabilities: Providing the overarching model and technology for the PPS-OC, this project, lead by co-investigator and team leader Jim Sturm (Princeton) undertakes to design and fabricate the highly confining and interconnected micro-environments used for culturing both bacteria and mammalian cells. The silicon micro-habitat patches (MHP) developed at Princeton will provide a mechanism to control, analyze and ultimately predict the evolution of resistance. Click to read more