IIT-G collaborates with IISc, Bangalore for breast cancer research

Besides Ghosh, the team comprises Gautam Biswas and Amaresh Dalal from IITG, Mohit Kumar Jolly from IISc Bangalore together with research fellow Binita Nath and research scholars Anil Bidkar and Vikash Kumar. Biswas pointed out that the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is known to be an important factor in cancer spread but how the converted cells travel through the blood vessels and undergo reverse transition at the secondary sites has not been completely understood and "our effort is to understand this aspect".

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The team found that the EMT cells had enhanced migratory properties and retained 50 per cent viability, even after migration through wells and constricted passages. They also found that the cells, collected at the channel outlet, regained epithelial character, he said. Perhaps the most important observation that the team made was that the EMT cells were more drug-resistant compared to the original epithelial cells and the reconverted epithelial cells, Ghosh added.

Our work is seminal in the area of cancer metastasis in that it explains the flow dynamics of the breast cancer cells and presents a vivid picture of EMT movement, he said. The research work was recently published in the 'Journal of Clinical Medicine' published from Switzerland.