A few months ago we made a press release on the recent work of Prof. Pere Cusachs: a beautiful research where they study how the cell interacts with its environment.
We help them made a beautiful image for them, picturing a cell exploring its surroundings. That image got particularly popular, making it to PhD manuscript covers and even t-shirts.
Finally, a different version of the picture made it to the cover of a biology journal: Trends in Cell Biology
Cells are able to perceive their surroundings by detecting forces. Interactions between cells and their ligands is essential to sustain the tissues functionalities, and detection of changes in the cell environment is of key importance to tissue growth, which includes embryogenesis or tumor proliferation. Cells are able to detect the position of molecules in their environment with nanometric precision and through forces, they are able to perceive their surroundings.
This work published in Nature has been directed by professor Pere Roca Cusachs (Universidad de Barcelona and Instituto de Bioingeniería de Cataluña).
To illustrate their research, we designed this picture with the help of Roger Oria.