(Press-News.org)
Fukuoka, Japan—Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, marked by the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. What makes it more dangerous is the ability of cancer cells to move quickly through the body, allowing them to invade surrounding tissues. While this behavior is well known, the mechanism behind this rapid spread remains unclear. Researchers from Kyushu University set out to fill this gap and unveiled a new physical process that helps cancer cells move rapidly throughout the body.
This study was led by Professor Junichi Ikenouchi from Kyushu University’s Faculty of Medical Sciences, along with his colleagues at Kyushu University, in collaboration with Yokohama City University. The findings of this study, published in The EMBO Journal on February 3, 2026, reveal how water pressure generated inside cells aids in cancer cell migration.
Healthy cells typically move by attaching to surfaces, which allows them to pull themselves forward. While existing therapies can target this adhesion-based movement, cancer cells evade this treatment approach by following a different strategy: amoeboid migration. In this mode, cells form temporary bulges called blebs, enabling them to squeeze through tight spaces without attaching to their surroundings.
For a long time, it was believed that bleb expansion was driven by internal pressure—until research by Ikenouchi in 2021 overturned that assumption. “In our previous research, we observed that expanding blebs show unique cytoplasmic properties such as high levels of calcium ions, suggesting that blebs are not just passive, pressure-driven protrusions but specialized cellular compartments,” explains Ikenouchi.
Inspired by this, the researchers wanted to further explore the reasons behind these bleb expansions. Furthermore, they also noticed significantly higher levels of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) present in the cells, prompting a critical question: does CaMKII have a more direct physical role in shaping cells and their movements?
As the researchers probed deeper into bleb dynamics, they discovered that CaMKII does much more than act as a signaling protein. When a bleb begins to grow, there is an increase in the calcium levels inside the cells. In response to this surge, CaMKII present in the cell undergoes a structural change and assembles into a large protein supercomplex together with other molecules.
Once formed, this supercomplex behaves like an osmotic engine, creating a concentration gradient that draws water into the bleb through osmosis. The water pushes the cell membrane outwards, leading to rapid growth of the bleb. This newly discovered process was named “CODE” which stands for “CaMKII-based osmotically-driven deformation.”
“Surprisingly, cells can generate force simply by changing how proteins are distributed inside them,” says Ikenouchi. “CaMKII creates pressure by gathering in one place, and that pressure physically pushes the membrane outward.”
These findings hold great significance in molecular biology, as most advanced cancer cells rely on amoeboid movement. In such cases, treatment becomes difficult; most current therapies only target cell proliferation or adhesion-dependent migration. Uncovering the CODE mechanism opens new avenues for therapies that specifically target amoeboid movement.
Apart from cancer, understanding how cells generate force through changes in their physical properties could also have implications for regenerative medicine, developmental biology, and tissue engineering. This research may inspire new therapeutic strategies that target cellular mechanics rather than classical signaling pathways, opening the door to more robust and effective treatments.
###
For more information about this research, see “CaMKII nucleates an osmotic protein supercomplex to induce cellular bleb expansion,” Yuki Fujii, Yuji Sakai, Kenji Matsuzawa, and Junichi Ikenouchi, The EMBO Journal, https://doi.org/10.1038/s44318-026-00703-5
About Kyushu University
Founded in 1911, Kyushu University is one of Japan's leading research-oriented institutions of higher education, consistently ranking as one of the top ten Japanese universities in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the QS World Rankings. Located in Fukuoka, on the island of Kyushu—the most southwestern of Japan’s four main islands—Kyushu U sits in a coastal metropolis frequently ranked among the world’s most livable cities and historically known as Japan’s gateway to Asia. Its multiple campuses are home to around 19,000 students and 8,000 faculty and staff. Through its VISION 2030, Kyushu U will “drive social change with integrative knowledge.” By fusing the spectrum of knowledge, from the humanities and arts to engineering and medical sciences, Kyushu U will strengthen its research in the key areas of decarbonization, medicine and health, and environment and food, to tackle society’s most pressing issues.
END
COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study in mice hints at the potential to use tiny particles made with RNA molecules to deliver chemotherapy drugs and other therapies directly to tumors, killing cancer cells without generating an immune response or toxicity-related side effects.
Researchers constructed tiny molecular clusters called RNA micelles, loaded them with potent chemo drugs and an RNA molecule that blocks cancer survival, and placed a tumor targeting molecule on their outer wall that attaches to receptors on cancer cell surfaces to enhance delivery.
Treatment with these RNA micelles almost ...
Materials scientists have long sought to enhance the durability of thermal/environmental barrier coatings (T/EBCs) under extreme conditions, particularly against corrosion caused by calcium‑magnesium‑alumino‑silicate (CMAS) melts. Understanding the corrosion mechanisms and accurately predicting the long‑term service life of coating materials remain critical challenges for aerospace and energy applications.
Recently, a research team from Harbin Institute of Technology and Shanghai University achieved a significant breakthrough. They designed two novel high‑entropy rare‑earth disilicates—(Er1/4Y1/4Lu1/4Yb1/4)2Si2O7 and ...
Invisible light beyond the range of human vision plays a vital role in communication technologies, medical diagnostics, and optical sensing. Ultraviolet and near-infrared wavelengths are routinely used in these fields, yet detecting them directly often requires complex instrumentation. Developing materials that can convert invisible light into visible signals could serve as essential components for measurement technologies and sensors, and play a major role in understanding the fundamental photophysical processes. However, developing those materials remains a key challenge in ...
Earth’s surface is covered by more than a dozen tectonic plates, and in subduction zones around the world—including the Japanese Islands—plates converge and dense oceanic plates sink into the Earth’s interior. These regions, especially plate boundaries, are known for frequent seismic activity. In recent years, scientists have increasingly emphasized that water plays a crucial role in earthquake phenomena in subduction zones, and thus conducted active research to investigate the influence of water on various processes occurring within earthquake source regions.
When water is supplied, peridotite—the primary constituent of ...
Early in the 1969 film “Midnight Cowboy,” Dustin Hoffman, playing the character of Ratso Rizzo, crosses a Manhattan street and angrily bangs on the hood of an encroaching taxi. Hoffman’s line — “I’m walking here!” — has since been repeated by thousands of New Yorkers. Where cars and people mix, tensions rise.
And yet, governments and planners across the U.S. haven’t thoroughly tracked where it is that cars and people mix. Officials have long measured vehicle traffic closely while largely ignoring pedestrian traffic. Now, an MIT research group has assembled a routable dataset of sidewalks, ...
An AI-powered model developed at University of Michigan can read a brain MRI and diagnose a person in seconds, a study suggests.
The model detected neurological conditions with up to 97.5% accuracy and predicted how urgently a patient required treatment.
Researchers say the first-of-its-kind technology could transform neuroimaging at health systems across the United States.
The results are published in Nature Biomedical Engineering.
“As the global demand for MRI rises and places significant strain our physicians and health systems, our AI model has potential to reduce burden by improving diagnosis and treatment with fast, accurate ...
Researchers from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with international partners, have engineered a thin two-dimensional perovskite phase at the buried interface of three-dimensional (3D) perovskite solar cells (PSCs) to boost device performance and operational stability.
The method, published in Nature Energy on February 6, improves the crystallization quality of perovskite films and reduces defect concentrations at the buried interfaces by more than 90 percent (a tenfold ...
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have uncovered a strategy that triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells use to boost their ability to metastasize, or spread to other organs. Metastasis is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths and scientists are investigating ways to prevent it. These findings, published in Nature Communications, highlight new possibilities for developing clinical interventions to treat metastatic TNBC patients for whom there are no specific therapies.
“Metastasis occurs ...
A recent study, led by the Center for Astrobiology (CAB), CSIC-INTA and using modelling techniques developed at the University of Oxford, has uncovered an unprecedented richness of small organic molecules in the deeply obscured nucleus of a nearby galaxy, thanks to observations made with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The work, published in Nature Astronomy, provides new insights into how complex organic molecules and carbon are processed in some of the most extreme environments in the Universe.
The study focuses on IRAS 07251–0248, ...
The Senckenberg Ocean Species Alliance (SOSA), in partnership with the scientific publisher Pensoft Publishers and famous science YouTuber Ze Frank, have let the Internet name a newly discovered deep-sea chiton (a type of marine mollusk). The formal description of the species was published today in the open-access Biodiversity Data Journal.
From over 8,000 name suggestions submitted via social media, the research team responsible for describing the species selected the name Ferreiraella populi. The specific epithet populi is a Latin singular noun in the genitive case meaning “of the people”. Curiously, the name was independently suggested by 11 different contributors ...
