Collaboration themes
The project is interdisciplinary in nature and the synergy arises from the complementary expertise and approach that is combined in the framework of this project. The Japanese partner has a strong background in protein imaging and tracking in cells and in living organisms; the Korean partner has a strong background in single-molecule imaging of protein-protein interactions in live cells. Both the Japanese and the Korean groups will use the tools designed and fabricated by the Chinese partners to ask that what happened in the process of tumorigenesis, cancer metastasis and angiogenesis, and how to study it conveniently and clearly. The Chinese partner has a strong background in micro- and nano-technologies and their biological applications, such as the cancer models on chip and the fluorescent nanomaterials. The protein visualization technology of the Japanese and Korean partners will be combined with the methodological tools of Chinese partners to finally tackle the issues in the cancer biology, e.g., cancer process simulation in vitro, mechanistic studies or drug screening based on the cancer models on chip. Besides, the protein imaging and tracking technology of the Japanese partner and the single-molecule imaging technology of protein-protein interactions of the Korean partner can be combined to study the key molecular events in cancer biology. Without the contribution of other partners, these research goals would not be made possible. Moreover, the cooperation leads all partners to new questions and challenges they would not have been asked without this interdisciplinary set-up. Examples include how the key proteins interacted with each others in the process of tumorigenesis, what make the tumor metastasize and what facilitate angiogenesis.
