Breast Cancer Cells Spread Over a Textured Surface, Image #2

Submitted by Julio M. D'Arcy, Erik C. Dreaden, and Paula T. Hammond

"This image shows multiple human breast cancer cells (red color) spreading over a porous and texturized polymeric surface (blue color). These cells are supported on nanofibers of an electrically conducting plastic serving as a scaffold for probing cellular growth. These nanofibers have punctured the cells and can therefore be used to inject them with a variety of chemicals that are capable of killing them.

I collected this image in order to study the interaction between a porous polymeric nanofibrillar surface and human cancer breast cells. I was trying to study how fast these cells would spread on a highly doped conducting polymer surface such as 3,4-polyethylenedioxythiophene (PEDOT)."