Stop metastases

“With the aim of deepening our understanding of cancer biology, I combine molecular biology, bioinformatics and genetics in my research. This has enabled us to show that clusters of cancer cells circulating in the blood play an important part in the development of metastases. We are now looking for new treatments for metastasising types of cancer. One approach is to identify drugs that exploit the vulnerabilities of cell clusters.”

Nicola Aceto, biomedical scientist, University of Basel, Recipient of several SNSF grants and a fellowship from the European Research Council (ERC)

Using special microchips, it is possible to isolate metastasising tumour cells in blood samples. The chips were developed by the team of Nicola Aceto in collaboration with the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering of ETH Zurich in Basel.
Microscope image of circulating clusters of tumour cells in the blood of a cancer patient (right). Karin Strittmatter, technical employee, analyses cultures of such cells in the lab (left).