“The stem cell is the mother of all cells. It is what allows the renewal of tissues throughout life and their repair in the event of damage. We decided to study stem cells more precisely breast and prostate because cancers of these organs are very common. So we tried to understand how they work and how they become cancerous and we realized that these two organs are very similar. They appear as a kind. of tube which is composed of two types of cells: luminal cells and basal cells. These cells have their own stem cells.
The researchers then wondered what role collagen, a protein present in all tissues and which ensures their cohesion, plays in the activation of certain cells. “Collagen plays an important role in the conditions that make stem cells have the ability to give rise to other cells and we realized that collagen and its stiffness are important and we tried to understand why. This is how we were able to identify the signaling pathway, a molecule that recognizes collagen. We said to ourselves that if we managed to block this molecule, we might be able to reduce the invasive and metastatic side of breast cancer and prostate cancer. This is an interesting study that will have implications for people working in this field.”
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