Microfluidic chips Researchers in Austria and the UK are using specially designed microfluidic chips on a silicon wafer to investigate how the tumour microenvironment impacts the behaviour of spreading tumour cells. (Courtesy: © Saren Tasciyan/ISTA)"> Microfluidic chips Researchers in Austria and the UK are using specially designed microfluidic chips on a silicon wafer to investigate how the tumour microenvironment impacts the behaviour of spreading tumour cells. (Courtesy: © Saren Tasciyan/ISTA)

A new study showing how tumour cells behave when surrounded by a disordered microenvironment could help cancer researchers by providing a biophysics model describing how cancers spread within the human body.

Researchers led by Michael Sixt, head of the Cellular Morphodynamics Group and Edouard Hannezo, leader of the Physical Principles in Biological Systems Group both at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria ( ISTA ), in collaboration with scientists from the UK’s Francis Crick Institute , have…