# Molecular Mechanisms of Cell Migration

> **NIH NIH R01** · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $321,018

## Abstract

Molecular Mechanisms of Cell Migration
Project summary:
Recognition of extracellular matrix (ECM) cues is critical to many developmental and homeostatic processes,
and misinterpretation of cues underlies diseases such as metastasis. Cells probe for ECM cues by extending
actin-based protrusions to bind ECM and form anchors to help them move forward. However, little is known
about the decision processes and signaling pathways that convert ECM probing by protrusions into directed
cell migration. Many conventional microscopy studies posit that protrusions are uniformly covered with
randomly diffusing unbound ECM receptors that stochastically bind ECM. With our new approach of dense-
field single molecule super-resolution microscopy, we have discovered a concentrated band of unbound ECM
receptors at the front of protrusions that have characteristic molecular patterns of receptor organization,
mobility, and functionalization. These patterns depend on both cellular protrusive activity and specific receptor
cytoplasmic binding domains, indicating that cytoplasmic interactions, visible only at the single molecule level
regulate how unbound integrins are organized in preparation for probing for ECM. In this proposal we will
define the cellular decision processes that convert ECM probing into directed cell migration by integrating
molecular measures of the organization, interaction, and functionalization of populations of ECM receptors with
cellular measures of the assembly of adhesions, actin regulatory pathways, and protrusive activity. We will: 1)
Define mechanisms that create the global spatial-temporal patterns of unbound ECM receptor organization,
mobility, and conformation at the front of cell protrusions that regulate the functionalization of protrusions to
probe ECM; 2) Identify signaling pathways that bound ECM receptors use to separate the decision to convert
an ECM cue into directed migration from the decision to continue to probe the ECM through actin cytoskeletal
dynamics. These studies will directly contribute to our understanding of cell recognition of ECM cues in many
development and homeostasis processes, as well as our understanding of the misinterpretation of cues, which
underlies diseases such as metastasis.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9903376
- **Project number:** 5R01GM117188-03
- **Recipient organization:** OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Catherine Green Galbraith
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $321,018
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-06-01 → 2023-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9903376

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9903376, Molecular Mechanisms of Cell Migration (5R01GM117188-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9903376. Licensed CC0.

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