Venerdì 27 Marzo 2026, ore 13
Edificio Asclepio U8-Aula 2
► Streaming Webex
From Jamming to Invasion: Physical Mechanisms of Collective Cell Migration Epithelial tissues can behave either as solid-like materials, in which cells are immobilized by crowding and strong cell–cell interactions, or as fluid-like collectives capable of coordinated rearrangements and migration. Transitions between these states—often described as jamming/unjamming transitions—are increasingly recognized as key physical mechanisms underlying processes such as morphogenesis, wound repair and tumour invasion. Understanding how epithelial tissues switch between these mechanical states is therefore an important challenge at the interface between physics, cell biology, and medicine.
In this seminar, I will discuss our work investigating how the physical state of epithelial tissues is regulated and how these transitions contribute to cancer progression. Using quantitative imaging, biophysical measurements and theoretical modelling, we found that epithelial collectives can switch from a kinetically arrested state to a fluid-like phase characterized by large-scale coordinated motion and persistent collective migration. In three-dimensional tumour spheroids, such dynamics generate coherent rotational flows that progressively remodel the surrounding extracellular matrix and promote collective invasion.
Together, these results illustrate how molecular-scale processes can control the physical state of tissues and highlight the importance of tissue mechanics and collective cell dynamics in tumour progression.
Host: Dr M.G. Cerrito
Fabio Giavazzi
Fabio Giavazzi is currently an Associate Professor of Applied Physics at the University of Milan. His research aims to understand the connection between the emerging collective behavior of soft and bio-soft materials and the elementary processes occurring at the microscale. In his lab, people use and develop novel optical methods and image analysis tools to probe the dynamics and microstructure of a wide range of physical and biological systems, from cells to fluid mixtures, from colloidal suspensions to biomolecular condensates.