A Dangerous Meeting: Blood Vessels and a Tumor Come Together

A Dangerous Meeting: Blood Vessels and a Tumor Come Together

Collections: Image Award Winners

2013 Award Winner

Tuomas Tammela
Jacks Laboratory

Koch Institute at MIT, MIT Department of Biology

Tumors are hungry. They require large amounts of oxygen and nutrients to fuel their rapid growth. How do they acquire these resources? Here, a lung tumor (green) extends to the right, infiltrating healthy lung tissue that is rich in nutrient-carrying blood vessels (red). But the tumor does not simply move toward blood vessels; it also attracts them, sending out molecular signals that cause new blood vessels to sprout from existing ones. Researchers took this image to better understand the nature of such communications between cancer cells and blood vessels.

Video

Tuomas Tammela tells the story behind his award-winning image.