Cell News 1/2015
22
Meeting Report
5
th
Annual Symposium “Physics of Cancer”,
This 5
th
Annual Symposium “Physics of Cancer”, October 2nd to 5th, was special in many ways:
Scientifically excellent, it was demanding their German participants to give up on a German holiday
and therefore a long weekend. This holiday was the 3rd of October, the day celebrating the German
reunification. However, where is a better place to remember this event than directly in Leipzig?
And we chose a special way to celebrate such an important event for Germany: By looking forward,
forward to future, forward to science. By assembling international scientists of 14 different coun-
tries – with PIs and students coming places as far as from New Zealand! – and by discussing the
latest concepts in understanding and treatment of cancer. However, this was not a ‘conventional’
cancer meeting but in this notable gathering of scientists from all disciplines, physicists to physi-
cians, provided a special way of looking at cancer! And of course the physical view dominated. So
questions asked – and sometimes answered – were not which medication is changing this or that
molecular event, but how it might change the physical properties of the tissue, the cancer cells or
the surrounding materials. Physical properties are for example the stiffness of cells, but also their
refractive index, their migration speed or migration persistence. Mechanical properties of cancer
cells are specifically interesting for the physicist and many of the participants work on such prob-
lems. We therefore had even two sessions on this topic, ranging from the idea of applying pressure
to cancer tissue in order to stop it growing (Giovanni Cappello) up to the question how cancerous
transformed cells sense the stiffness of their environment compared to healthy cells (Paul Janmey).
Furthermore, the technical aspect how physical tools can be used in order to shed new light on
cancer was investigated. Here, we had a whole session on microtools which are used for cancer
research, such a small, artificial channels to investigate the migration of cancer cells (Ben Fabry,
Matthieu Piel) or how to hold a huge number of single floating cells so that we can investigate them
further (Dino Di Carlo). Since mechanical properties of cells are closely related to the cytoskeleton,
the cortex and the membrane, one session was dedicated to such issues: Patricia Bassereau reported
on the way of pulling tubes out of membranes. The role of actin and microtubules in cancer were
discussed by many of the participants. And even theoretical physicists joined us and presented
models about how we could understand changed cellular reactions in cancer, such as an altered
migration (Raphael Voituriez and Claudia Fischbach-Teschl).
However, we were happy that we had the possibility not only to listen to the long standing principle
investigators, which can always give excellent presentations within a large context, but who are
not the ones actually doing the experiments anymore. Those are the PhD students and the Postdocs,
who are working for months on small problems that are so important in order to understand the
big picture. Hence, we were lucky to listen to nine chosen presentations of junior scientists ranging
from the mechanics of human cancer tissue (Anatol Fritsch) up to the movement of cancerous cell
pairs on circular patterns (Felix Jakob Segerer). Since we were not able to give all junior scientists a
platform presentation, we then enjoyed a whole evening with the discussion of 36 excellent posters.
After all this exciting science, we did not turn away our faces from history and tradition, not at all.
In the evening of the 3rd of October, all participants enjoyed a mess at the famous Thomas church
and together visited a museum dedicated to the German reunification (Zeitgeschichtliches Forum).
The conference was a great success and many participants stayed in contact afterwards, working
on new or already on-going collaborations. We hope the next symposium of this conference cycle,
again in Leipzig, 7th – 9th of September 2015, will bring parts of us together once more in order
to pick up the discussions. Of course we hope further that we will attract new people, with new
ideas and new methods to communicate, so that we can face this big cancer concern together – in
a physical but integrative approach!
Franziska Lautenschläger
