van Rheenen Group

Cancer biophysics

Complication of metastasis, the process in which cells detach from the primary tumor to form new distant tumor sites, is the primary reason why women die from breast cancer. The metastatic behavior of tumor cells is highly dependent on the cell’s intrinsic characteristics and on the tumor microenvironment, such as stromal cells and the extracellular matrix. We study both by combining conditional mouse models that recapitulate human breast tumors and intravital imaging techniques (high resolution imaging of metastasis in living animals in real time). By these experiments we hope to indentify new drug targets that combined with current clinical approaches may lead to new therapies.

Group

About the research

Selected recent key publications
Jalink K, van Rheenen, J (2010) Nano-imaging of membrane topography affects interpretations in cell biology. Nat. Meth. 7:486.

van Rheenen, J., Condeelis, J. Glogauer, M. (2009) A common cofilin activity cycle in invasive tumor cells and inflammatory cells. J. Cell Sci. 122: 305-311.

Kedrin, K., Gligorijevic, B., Wyckoff, J., Verkhusha, V.V., Condeelis, J., Segall, J.E., van Rheenen, J. (2008) Intravital imaging of metastatic behavior through a mammary imaging window. Nat. Meth. 5: 1019-1021. Highlighted in Nature 456: 850.

van Rheenen, J., Song, X., van Roosmalen, W., Cammer, M., Chen, X., Desmarais, V., Yip, S.C., Backer, J.M., Eddy, R.J., Condeelis, J.S. (2007) EGF-induced PIP2 hydrolysis releases and activates cofilin locally in carcinoma cells. J. Cell Biol. 179: 1247-1259. Highlighted in Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol., 9: 91.

van Rheenen, J., Achame, E.M., Janssen, H., Calafat, J., Jalink, K. (2005) PIP2 in rafts: a critical re-evaluation, EMBO J., 24: 1664-1673.

Publication list