Since the end of 2017, Morgan has been studying the impact of compressive stresses on cell proliferation, at the interface between physics, engineering and biology, with the aim of understanding how they are integrated and how they could be taken into account to better treat certain pathologies such as cancer.

The UnderPressure project: Elucidating the phenotypic convergence of proliferation reduction under growth induced pressure

Most living organisms proliferate as multicellular assemblies. These are naturally limited by their environment: plant roots, for example, grow underground and must displace their environment to grow. Solid tumors, on the other hand, develop in organs where they do not naturally have room to grow. When multicellular assemblies proliferate in confined environments, they develop so-called growth forces. These forces can be gigantic, if one considers that roots are capable of breaking through concrete. Growth forces seem to have a similar effect on all organisms: whether they are plant or animal cells, or microbes such as bacteria, they limit cell proliferation. The goal of the UnderPressure project is to understand the origin of this limitation, and in particular to study the possibility that it may have a common, biophysical origin, whatever the organism.

_{© Morgan Delarue}

Learn more about the Toulouse laureates selected for the ERC grants on the CNRS Occitanie-ouest website (in french).

Also read the portrait of Morgan Delarue on the CNRS-INSIS website (in french).