The ability to invade its surrounding tissue is one of the acknowledged hallmarks of cancer. This complex multi-scale process is affected by many players of the tumour microenvironment (TME), including the extracellular matrix (ECM) and various stromal cells such as macrophages. One of these key processes is the secretion of matrix degrading enzymes that enables the degradation of the neighbouring ECM and cell-matrix adhesion. By varying the strength of cell-matrix and multiple cell-cell adhesions, cancer...

Vegetation is a potential indicator of land contaminated by hydrocarbons. Remote sensing holds great potential for detecting stress in vegetation caused by the presence of hydrocarbons, but as yet this potential has not been realised, largely due to a lack of understanding of the biophysiological impacts of hydrocarbons on plant growth, and the specific spectral expression of them. Previous research has demonstrated success in laboratory simulation of hydrocarbon contamination and the analysis of the spectral...