illustration (IMAGE)

UT Southwestern Medical Center

illustration

Caption

Normal breast epithelial cells were engineered to express mutant HER3 alone, mutant HER2 alone, or both mutations. Cells expressing only the HER3 mutation formed very small spherical colonies in a 3D matrix, which mimics the tumor microenvironment. Cells expressing only the HER2 mutation formed large spherical colonies with smooth edges. However, cells expressing both mutations formed large colonies with invasive branches, indicating cells invading into the extracellular matrix.

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Ariella Hanker and Dan Ye

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