Koen van den Dries received ENW-XS grant from the NWO

NWO ENW-XS category strives to encourage curiosity-driven and bold research involving a relatively quick analysis of a promising idea.

In this project, Koen van den Dries, theme nanomedicine, will investigate the movement of tumor cells and the molecular mechanisms of metastasis. Metastases arise when cancer cells leave the primary tumor site and colonize distant tissues. While it is known that metastases are driven by cancer cell movement, possibilities to prevent metastases are limited. It is therefore essential to increase our understanding of cancer cell movement, which is regulated by the cellular skeleton. Here, we aim to develop innovative gene engineered cell systems to investigate the importance of small differences in the building blocks of this skeleton in regulating cancer cell movement. We expect that a better insight into these differences will in the future lead to more possibilities to prevent metastases.

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