These images show cancer cells in the process of adapting to a new growth format, which will enable us to understand how cancer cells alter their metabolic behavior to survive in different environments. These images were of cancer cells that had been grown in 3D matrices previously and were transferred to a 2D growth format where they exhibit dramatic alterations and a high degree of variability, which we were documenting.

In this project we are trying to understand whether the growth format, nutrient conditions, or which mutations the cancer cells have is the most important variable for determining their metabolic behavior. These images are of one of the genotypes (APC^-/- ; KRAS^G12D ; p53^-/-) grown in a 2D format, and represents 1 of 32 conditions we are systematically profiling.