Understanding the physics of cancer, preventing metastases
Jochen Guck receives the Leopoldina Greve Prize
In honour of his groundbreaking insights into the movement of tumour cells, Professor Dr Jochen Guck from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen receives the 2024 Greve Prize from the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Dealing with metastases is one of the major challenges of cancer therapy. More than 90 percent of deaths caused by cancer are linked to metastases. Understanding the conditions that cause cancer metastases and how these move through the body is key to developing new approaches to cancer treatment. The award, endowed with 250,000 euros, is donated by the Helmut and Hannelore Greve Foundation for Science, Development and Culture.
Prof. Dr. Jochen Guck, Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light and Professor of Biological Optomechanics at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen- Nürnberg.
MPG
The biophysicists Professor Dr Jochen Guck from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) and Professor Dr Josef Käs from the University of Leipzig, Germany are leading global scientists in the physics of cancer. Their research, some of which they have conducted jointly, investigates the physical properties of cells when they interact with surrounding tissue. They have managed to demonstrate how tumour cells actively change from solid and stiff to a fluid and soft condition in order to move between the dense tissue of the human body and form metastases. This discovery has led to a paradigmatic shift in how cancer cells are viewed and motivated collaboration with the physician Professor Dr Bahriye Aktas from the University of Leipzig Medical Center. She raises the question of what limits cancer cells in the body experience. “Bahriye Aktas, Jochen Guck, and Josef Käs provide an impressive example of how interdisciplinary basic research can significantly deepen the understanding of cancerous diseases,” says Leopoldina President Professor (ETHZ) Dr Gerald Haug. “Studying the behaviour of tumour cells from the perspective of physics and linking it to direct insights gained from medical institutions has the potential to develop completely new means of treating cancer.”
The potential for cancer treatment is already apparent with respect to breast cancer. Whether the cancer has metastasised or not is key in determining the success of therapies. To date, however, it has not been possible to accurately predict when a tumour forms metastases. Käs and Aktas, working together with Professor Dr Axel Niendorf (Hamburg/Germany), managed to identify markers that, in combination with existing criteria, are significantly better at indicating a tumour’s potential to metastasise. They have done so using biophysical concepts, the central idea of which – that metastasising cancer cells must be softer – Jochen Guck played an important role in developing. Cancer cells in primary tumours are, at the local level, very solid and densely packed. In order to release themselves from the original tumour and move through the human body, cancer cells must soften, allowing the cancer cell aggregate to become fluid. Guck developed a high-throughput method to measure the deformability of cells (real-time deformability cytometry, RT-DC). This method is particularly suited to finding substances that can change cancer cell mechanics to prevent metastases.
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