A new ASCB Celldance video has taken NIH Director Francis Collins back to the movies. It’s an espionage thriller, Collins reports in his NIH Director’s Blog that left him on the edge of his seat. The Celldance video is “Spying on Cancer,”, the work of MD-PhD student Edison Leung and postdoc Alison Harney in the John Condeelis lab at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. Collins says that the video showcases the power of intravital microscopy in challenging longstanding ideas about the metastatic process in cancer.
It’s exciting science and an exciting video, says the NIH Director. “Without giving too much of the plot away, let me just say that it involves cancer cells escaping from a breast tumor and spreading, or metastasizing, to other parts of the body. Along the way, those dastardly cancer cells take advantage of collagen fibers to make a tight-rope getaway and recruit key immune cells, called macrophages, to serve as double agents to aid and abet their diabolical spread.”
“Spying on Cancer” is one of three Celldance videos produced last year by ASCB’s Public Information Committee (PIC) operating under the stage name of “Celldance Studios.” The other Celldance 2015 videos are “Shape Shifting Cells,” from the Johns Hopkins University lab of Douglas Robinson, and “At the Cell’s Edge,” “At the Cell’s Edge,” which was done in the Satyajit Mayor lab at the National Centre for Biological Science in Bangalore, India.
This year, Celldance Studios will once again solicit short proposals from ASCB member labs to make a short 3-4 minute “Tell Your Own Cell Story” video. Celldance Studios will award three ASCB member labs a $1,000 ASCB production grant each, assign a Celldance producer for assistance, and provide post-production services including final editing, music, credit slates, and promotion.
About the Author:
John Fleischman was the ASCB Senior Science Writer from 2000 to 2016. Best unpaid perk of the job? Working with new grad students and Nobel Prize winners.
