Physics Colloquium: Immunity and cancer: a physical perspective for lung cancer carcinoma

Physics Colloquium
Immunity and cancer: a physical perspective for lung cancer carcinoma

Dr. Martine Benamar
Professor
Sorbonne Université

Event Details:
In this talk I will present the role of the immune system in the early development of lung cancer. The study is based on recent in vitro experiments on the mixing of cancer cells, alveolar macrophages and fibroblasts in the group of P.Benaroch (Institut Curie), on physical data we can extract by analyzing the non-trivial process of aggregation and finally on a theoretical representation of the tumor and its stroma. In patients, the tumor stroma consists mainly of extracellular matrix, fibroblasts, immune cells and vasculature. Its structure and functions are altered during malignancy: tumor cells transform fibroblasts into cancer-associated fibroblasts, which exhibit immunosuppressive activities on which growth and metastasis depend. These include exclusion of immune cells from the tumor nest, proliferation of fibers, and T-cell inhibition. With a spatio-dynamical systems of the cell distribution, the variety of possible outcomes are explored which depends on the parameter values for each patient, and leads to either tumor invasion, persistence, or eradication as a result of the interplay between cancer cell growth, T cell cytotoxicity and fibroblast activity.

Bio:
Martine Ben Amar is a Professor at Sorbonne Université and member emerita of the Institut Universitaire de France. A Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur, she has received the Huy Duong Bui Prize from the French Academy of Sciences, and was honored with a special issue of the International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics. Professor Ben Amar studied at the École Normale Supérieure and began her career in atomic physics before shifting to nonlinear physics, elasticity, and biomechanics. A professor at Sorbonne Université since 1993, she was previously a researcher at ENS and held the McCarthy Chair at MIT from 1999 to 2001. Her research links physical modeling with biological processes such as embryogenesis and tumor growth, focusing on elasticity, morphogenesis, and active materials.

Intended Audience:
All are Welcome!

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