Sophia Marcellius

Chemotaxis, the migration of cells towards a direction of a chemical gradient, plays a critical role in physiological processes like wound healing and metastasis. Metastatic cancer is the leading cause of death amongst cancer patients due to the cancer cells spreading throughout the body. My research project in Catherine Murphy’s lab focuses on using gold nanoparticles, a promising material for cancer therapeutics, to interfere with the chemotaxis to prevent further spreading. Using a 3D cell culture model to simulate the extracellular matrix environment in vivo, the chemotactic behavior of cancer cells is observed in the presence of the gold nanoparticles.