Momentum - The Magazine for Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Vol. 3 No. 3 Fall 2018

Cell migration key to developmental biology, wound healing, cancer metastasis Cells, like people, use roads and paths to move around, and are predisposed to prefer some path- ways over others. This preference could, according to Amrinder Nain, associate professor of me- chanical engineering in the College of Engineering, help researchers create materials that will assist in understanding cell migration vital in developmental biology, wound healing, and cancer metastasis. To make cells move, Nain came up with a patented approach to build fiber networks, called Spin- neret Based Tunable Engineered Parameters (STEP). Because STEP doesn’t use electricity, it provides fine control of fiber spacing, fiber diameter, and fiber orientation (Figure 1). “Inside the body, collagen is fibrous in nature, but the individ- ual fibers are tiny - anywhere from 30-70 nanometers in diameter Figure 1 Non-electrospinning Spinneret based Tunable Engineered Parameters (STEP) fiber manufactur- ing platform MOMENTUM FALL 2018 PAGE 20

Momentum - The Magazine for Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Vol. 3 No. 3 Fall 2018 | Page 20