Cell Migration Consortium

University Of Virginia Charlottesville, Charlottesville VA

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (taken from the application): Migration is a pivotal process in many diverse phenomena including embryonic development, tumor formation and spread, leukocyte recruitment during immune responses, and wound repair. Elucidating the mechanisms underlying cell migration presents a formidable intellectual challenge since it is comprised of several complex molecular and cellular processes that must be coordinated in both space and time. A full comprehension of the process of cell migration requires an interdisciplinary approach that combines diverse specialists with skills to bring novel technical and intellectual solutions to the problem. While migration research is undergoing rapid growth in both investigators and knowledge, progress will soon be restrained by an approaching set of intellectual and technological barriers. We propose using the Large Scale Cooperative Project initiative to address the opportunities and overcome the challenges posed by the present barriers to progress in understanding cell migration. At the center of the initiative is a plan to create a highly interactive, multidisciplinary research Consortium comprised of Core Investigators with outstanding records of accomplishment. The Consortium will promote interactions among those working in common areas and those working in different subdisciplines, e.g., adhesion, cytoskeleton, growth factor receptors, and signaling, for example. It will bring needed, new investigators from other disciplines, e.g., modeling, structure, vesicle trafficking and microtubule dynamics, into the field of migration research through meetings, web-based interactive activities, and collaborative research projects A major objective is to develop new technologies that are needed to overcome the technical barriers that face cell migration research and incrementally move research ahead. This will be accomplished by supporting innovative, developmental research initiatives (designated "development Cores") under the direction of the Core Investigators. Such initiatives will include efforts to determine the complete repertoire of genes and gene products that contribute to cell migration (the genomics and proteomics Core), the structural organization of large, supramolecular adhesive assemblies (structure Core), detection of activated states of signaling molecules in space and time (signaling Core), and development of quantitative assays and modeling mechanisms of component migratory processes and signal transduction through networks (modeling Core). In addition, the Consortium will support critical, non-hypothesis-based research pertinent to cell migration. This includes resources to develop novel genomic and proteomic strategies to identify and characterize key molecules that mediate migration, facilities to bank specialty cell lines developed by the Consortium, resources to develop new cell lines and mouse models for studying cell migration, and facilities for state-of-the-art photomanipulative and other imaging-related technologies. Finally, the Consortium will provide infrastructure to support telecommunications, data and information dissemination and technology resources that are common to many projects or needed to produce key reagents.