Download Conjoint 529: Mechanisms of cell migration Justification: The

CONJOINT 529: MECHANISMS OF CELL MIGRATION
Justification: The directed migration of cells within and between tissues is a
fundamental process in animal development. In early embryos the germ layers
move over one another and intercalate to form the body axes; later in development
neural crest cells migrate throughout the body to give rise to a range of
differentiated cell types and primordial germ cells home to the developing gonad. In
the brain, neurons migrate from generative zones to the positions where they make
their synaptic contacts. A number of human disease conditions and developmental
abnormalities stem from defects in cell migration, and cell migration occurs
inappropriately during cancer metastasis. This is a new course that highlights
modern ideas about mechanisms of cell migration, from the basic subcellular events
that generate and stabilize cellular protrusions to the diffusible attractants and
repellants that orient migration.
Contact Information: Cecilia Moens and Jon Cooper, Members, Division of Basic
Science, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
SYLLABUS
Course Overview:
Week 1: Introduction
a. kinds of migrating cells: neural crest, neurons and their growth cones,
primordial germ cells, immune cells, cancer cells.
b. Forms of motility: filopodia, lammellipodia, blebbing
c. Role of cell-substrate adhesion, collective vs. single cell migration
Week 2 and 3: Cell Biology of migration
a. force and traction: actomyosin motors and cell adhesion receptors
b. actin dynamics
c. rho GTPases
d. cell polarity/leading edge
e. endosomal signaling
Week 4 and 5: Signals and cell-cell interactions in directed migration
1. Chemotaxis
a. diffusible signals and chemotactic gradients
b. How cells translate concentration differences into directional
responses
2. Substrate-directed migration
a. radial glia
3. Collective migration
a. sheets (convergent extension, neural crest)
b. groups (lateral line primordium, border cells)
c. epithelial-mesenchymal and mesenchymal-epithelial transitions
Learning Goals/Objectives: This is a short (5-week) course on current perspectives
on cell migration. It is not intended to be comprehensive, but to introduce students
to current ideas about how migrating cells detect and respond to environmental
cues.
Required Readings: Papers from the current cell migration literature will be
selected as class readings to be discussed. No single student will be responsible for
presenting a paper; rather, the discussion of the paper will be a round-table format.
Evaluation and Grading: Students will be evaluated based on their participation in
group discussions of selected papers from the current literature (50%) and on a
written review of a selected current topic in cell migration (50%).
Course Schedule:
Week
1
1
2
2
3
3
4
4
5
5
Session
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
2
Event
Lecture
Paper review
Lecture
Paper review
Lecture
Paper review
Lecture
Paper review
Lecture
Lecture
Presenter
Moens
Discussion
Cooper
Discussion
Moens
Discussion
Moens
Discussion
Cooper
Moens
Topic
Introduction to Cell Migration
TBA
Cell Biology of Migration I
TBA
Cell Biology of Migration II
TBA
Chemotaxis
TBA
Substrate-directed Migration
Collective Migration