Complex Systems grantee Phillip LeDuc publishes the latest findings of his research on cancer and wound healing in the December 29, 209 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In cancer and wound healing, one of the critical factors between more treatable primary cancer and secondary cancer, which has spread throughout the body is the ability for cells to leave the primary tumor and crawl to other places in your body through your blood stream. The process of cell crawling is heavily influenced by MechanoBiology and this protein, syndecan, is part of that. If the link between MechanoBiology and syndecan-4 can be better understood, new directions for cancer and wound healing    treatments could be made. Read more about these research findings in the PNAs article, “Defining the role of syndecan-4 in mechanotransduction using surface-modification approaches.”