Another round of cell culture
Author: Logan Waddle | Major Biophysics | Semester: Fall 2024
My name is Logan Waddle, a senior biophysics major from Fulbright College doing research with Dr. Jian Zhang of Biomedical Engineering in Fall 2024 and Spring 2025. My project’s goal is to determine mechanical factors that drive collective cancer cell invasion and connect these to cellular bioenergetics. Cancer metastasis is the leading cause of death for women with breast cancer. Understanding the cellular mechanisms that drive metastasis is therefore important to develop preventative methods. Our research focuses on creating specialized microenvironments for cells to replicate physiological conditions while allowing us to measure the cellular forces and energetics of migrating cancer cells. To measure cellular forces we create “tracks” on an elastic substrate. As cells move on the track we can measure how much they deform the elastic substrate and subsequently calculate how much force the cells exert. For now, our research focuses on one-dimensional cell migration to keep calculations easier, but future research will likely focus on three-dimensional measurements.
I’ve been a part of the Zhang lab for more than two years now. I found the lab through a friend taking Introduction to Biomedical Engineering where Dr. Zhang gave a presentation on his research. The idea of combining cancer research with biophysics suited my tastes so I immediately applied. I’ve been very grateful to have Dr. Zhang as my mentor as he’s incredibly involved in the research process. I have been able to meet with him frequently to discuss where my project might be having issues. Our two graduate students have also been helping with my project when Dr. Zhang is unavailable.
Over the last two years of research, I’ve learned that research can be a very slow and very involved process. Making changes to procedures can sometimes take weeks of testing which can be stressful when there’s an Honors Thesis deadline looming in the background. Most of the Fall 2024 semester was spent troubleshooting a new method for engineering the cellular microenvironment and taking preliminary data. We’ve begun using a new method of microfabrication that creates well-defined tracks and keeps cells from moving onto their elastic substrate. With this new procedure in place, I’ve been able to image dozens of cell chains and gather data on intracellular forces. There is some more troubleshooting to be done, but the procedure is nearly complete and we can begin generating better data.
In the Spring 2025 semester, I plan on presenting our research at a few conferences and poster competitions. I’ve applied to present at the National Council on Undergraduate Research 2025 and am preparing to submit an abstract for the University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Symposium. The data we’ve collected so far can only be used to determine the forces that the cells are experiencing. We plan to spend the Spring 2025 semester collecting additional force data as well as beginning to collect bioenergetic data. If progress is fast we also plan to vary the environmental conditions of the cells (such as changing glucose concentration in the cell medium) to see if there’s any effect on cellular migration.