Cancer is a hard disease to control because of its ability to spread to different parts of the body. Cancer cells can spread out from a primary tumor to distant organs which gives rise to new cancer cell colonies and more tumors over time. This process is known as metastasis and causes over 90% of human cancer deaths.
Cell traction force (CTF) coordinates many cellular functions such as cell migration. Cell migration plays a critical role in the spread of cancer. Therefore, CTF plays a significant role the the biological process of metastasis.
The goal of this experiment is to simultaneously measure the deformation field around the cells and cellular responses between two different substrate rigidities. Past experiments have been mostly done with different substrate rigidities separately. However, it is more realistic to measure cellular contractility with two different substrate rigidities simultaneously. These conditions better reflect physiological conditions because there are varying rigidities within the human body
