Tsukasa Shibue
Weinberg Laboratory, Whitehead Institute
Deconvolution Microscopy

"I am studying the behaviors of cancer cells under conditions where these cells are surrounded at all sides by the extracellular matrix. Aggressive mouse mammary carcinoma cells (D2A1) were grown within a gel of extracellular matrix (Matrigel). These cells developed actin stress fibers (red) as well as plaques containing tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins (white). These plaques represents the sites where cells adhere to the surrounding extracellular matrix. The presence of tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins within these plaques indicates the presence of active signaling events associated with cell-matrix adhesions. The nuclei of these cells were visualized by DAPI (blue). This image showed the ability of D2A1 cells to activate adhesion-associated signaling events under such conditions, prompting me to study the role of these signaling events in controlling the behavior of these D2A1 cells."