Study Sheds Light on Cancer Cell ‘Tug-of-War’

In APL Bioengineering, researchers used a breast cancer cell line panel and primary tumor explants from breast and cervical cancer patients to examine two different cellular contractility modes: one that generates collective tissue surface tension that keeps cell clusters compact and another, more directional, contractility that enables cells to pull themselves into the extracellular matrix.

Why Ventilators can be Tough on Preemie Lungs

Many premature infants need mechanical ventilation to breathe. However, prolonged ventilation can lead to problems like respiratory diseases or ventilation-induced injury.Jonas Naumann and Mareike Zink study the physics of mechanical stress from ventilation at Leipzig University, in Leipzig, Germany and discovered some of the mechanisms that explain why premature lungs are especially sensitive to stress.