CMTM Postdoctoral Fellow – Dr. Marina Uroz

Melanoma vessel co-option in brain metastasis

ABSTRACT:

The vasculature plays a key role in cancer progression. To grow, tumors need access to the bloodstream. But beyond providing access to nutrients and oxygen, blood vessels can serve as migratory paths for cancer cells, a process called vessel co-option. Among other better studied cancer migration mechanisms, vessel co-option has emerged as a novel migratory mechanism that can facilitate tumor invasion and metastasis. After extravasating in the brain, metastatic cells from breast, lung and skin cancer have been shown to move on the basal side of the vasculature. Although vessel co-option is necessary for the dissemination of metastatic cells in the brain, the mechanisms by which cancer cells migrate along blood vessels remain elusive. In this talk, I will present our approaches to study metastatic melanoma vessel co-option, with a focus on how the mechanical properties of the brain regulate this process.

NARRATIVE BIOSKETCH:

Dr. Uroz earned her B.S. in Physics and M.S. in Biophysics from the University of Barcelona, after which she entered the doctoral program in Biomedicine at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC).  Her research at IBEC under advisor Dr. Xavier Trepat focused on cellular mechanobiology and culminated in the first-author publication of “Regulation of cell division and cell cycle progression by cell-cell and cell-matrix forces” in Nature Cell Biology.  Upon completion of her Ph.D., Dr. Uroz received a prestigious two-year EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship, joining CMTM faculty Chris Chen’s lab in the Biological Design Center in 2019 to work on studying the interplay between cancer cells and vascular systems.  Most recently, Dr. Uroz was named the  Inaugural CMTM Postdoctoral Fellow in 2021.