Contact inhibition of locomotion probabilities drive solitary versus collective cell migration.

Contact inhibition of locomotion (CIL) is the process whereby cells collide, cease migrating in the direction of the collision, and repolarize their migration machinery away from the collision. Quantitative analysis of CIL has remained elusive because cell-to-cell collisions are infrequent in traditional cell culture. Moreover, whereas CIL predicts mutual cell repulsion and 'scattering' of cells, the same cells in vivo are observed to undergo CIL at some developmental times and collective cell migration at others.

Subcellular spatial segregation of integrin subtypes by patterned multicomponent surfaces.

While it is well known that individual integrins are critical mediators of cell behavior, recent work has shown that when multiple types of integrins simultaneously engage the ECM, cell functions are enhanced. However, it is not known how integrins spatially coordinate to regulate cell adhesion because no reliable method exists to segregate integrins on the cell membrane. Here, we use a microcontact printing-based strategy to pattern multiple ECMs that bind distinct integrins in order to study how integrins might interact.