Crossing Over: Cells Move Through an Epithelial Bridge

Crossing Over: Cells Move Through an Epithelial Bridge

Collections: Image Award Winners, Metastasis

2012 Award Winner

Brett Zani
Edelman Lab

Koch Institute at MIT, Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology

Epi-Fluorescence Micrograph

The long, thin structure shown here was discovered entirely by accident.  Researchers were conducting tissue engineering experiments when they began noticing “bridges” like this one connecting populations of epithelial cells in culture.  The physiological significance of these bridges remains unknown, but in the Petri dish they seem to enable a new form of cell migration.

Video

Brett Zani explains how and why he captured this image of an epithelial bridge.