Recent work by Ricard Alert of the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems and his collaborators uncovered a similarity between liquid droplets and cell groups, revealing that surface tension helps cells to migrate towards stiffer environments. The new work proposes that this process, called durotaxis and which was defined in the field of cell biology, can be accounted for quite precisely with the physics of wetting. This new insight could help us to understand how cancer cells disseminate across tissues with different rigidity in our body.

Original Publication:

Pallarès, M.E., Pi-Jaumà, I., Fortunato, I.C. et al. Stiffness-dependent active wetting enables optimal collective cell durotaxis. Nat. Phys. 19, 279–289 (2023). doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01835-1

Originally published by the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems on 24th March 2023 – original article can be found here: https://www.pks.mpg.de/research/highlights