Increasingly, the study of cancer is coming to involve a detailed consideration of the cell biology of cancer cells. Although traditionally associated with aberrant growth control, from a clinical perspective, cancer cells are dangerous not so much because of their propensity for proliferation but rather for their propensity to metastasize.
Understanding the mechanisms responsible for mediating the orderly relations among cells, especially the mechanisms controlling cell shape and migration, are central to our understanding of the molecular basis of cancer. Several labs are directly concerned with these issues, focussing on the organization of the actin and microtubule-based cytoskeleton, the morphogenesis and polarity of epithelial cells, the cell cycle-dependent control of organelle biogenesis, and the role of protein kinases in controlling cell morphogenesis. In addition, we have groups that are working to leverage cell biological information to develop novel cancer therapies by studying the interaction of anti-tumor antibodies with cancer cells and the development of cancer vaccines using dendritic cells.
