Biological & Soft Matter Seminar: Unjamming versus the Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transformation (EMT): Similarities, Differences, and their relevance for cancer metastasis

Abstarct:

The onset of motility in epithelial tissue can occur via two disparate mechanisms, referred to respectively as unjamming versus EMT. One main difference between these two possibilities appears to be the degree of confluency maintenance, as modulated by the appearance of small gaps between neighboring cells when epithelial cells undergo EMT. This talk will review recent progress both on the genetic networks underlying EMT and on incorporating the possibility of EMT into active media models. We will then argue that EMT is likely to be a more important contributor to cancer metastasis.