Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), led by Dr. Ryan Stowers, have developed an algae-based hydrogel that mimics the basement membrane of mammary gland tissue. This new material provides a controllable, tunable platform to study how the physical and biochemical properties of the cellular microenvironment influence breast tissue development and cancer progression.
The study, published in Science Advances, shows that by adjusting the stiffness and biochemical composition of the gel, scientists can observe how mammary cells transition between normal and malignant behaviors, reflecting how tumor stiffness increases during cancer progression.
Graduate student Jane Baude optimized the gel by combining peptide sequences and adjusting polymer crosslinking to match the performance of Matrigel, a commonly used commercial product. The new gel allows researchers to dissect how different mechanical and biochemical cues shape cell growth and tissue organization.
The UCSB team aims to use this system to guide tissue morphogenesis and potentially engineer complex organs from patient-derived cells. As Stowers notes, understanding and manipulating the cell’s physical environment could provide key insights into developmental biology and cancer research.
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