HOMECONTACTSITE MAPIMPRINT
CeNS Center for NanoScience LMU Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
CeNS HomepageLMU Homepage
Home  >  News  >  Archive

Wednesday, 01 August, 2007

Poster Award at European Biophysics Congress 2007

Teresa Neumaier from the Biological Physics Group (University of Augsburg) wins the "Biochemical Journal Young Investigator Awards" in London for her poster contribution

Presenting her Diploma Thesis and PhD work "Quantification of Melanoma Cell Adhesion to the Protein von Willebrand Factor", Teresa Neumaier and Kumudesh Sritharan from the Biological Physics Group at the University of Augsburg (Matthias F. Schneider and Achim Wixforth) won the Biochemical Journal Young Investigator Award from a total of roughly 800 poster contributions. The successfully collaborating authors work at the University of Augsburg (A. Wixforth, K. Sritharan, T. Franke, M. F. Schneider) and at the University of Muenster (S. W. Schneider). Teresa Neumair recently started her PhD at the GSF in Munich (National Research Center for Environment and Health) with Stefan Thalhammer. (mcb)

Poster abstract:
The adhesion of carcinoma cells to the extracellular matrix within the blood vessel is an important step in cancer cell invasion. The protein von Willebrand factor (vWF) plays a key role in platelet adhesion during the blood clotting process and may facilitate the adhesion of melanoma cells when it undergoes metastases. By using the micropipette aspiration technique which enables us to manipulate a single melanoma cell onto glass slides biofunctionalised with the vWF, we were able to quantify the adhesion energy between the melanoma cell and the vWF. The use of surface acoustic wave induced streaming allowed to mimic shear rates similar to our micro-circulatory system. We report that once a critical shear is applied vWF induced adhesion is increased by 25%. The shear rate applied necessary coincides with earlier studies where vWF was found to undergo a coiled stretched transition under high shear rate conditions. The importance for the VWF mediated metastasis is discussed.