Cancer Matrix and Mechanics Group, Tumour Microenvironment Laboratory

Dr. Sarah Boyle, a current ARC DECRA Research Fellow, leads the Cancer Matrix and Mechanics Group within the Tumour Microenvironment Laboratory at the Centre for Cancer Biology. Her interdisciplinary research program focusses on understanding how mechanical stresses and inputs, the extracellular matrix, and mechanotransduction signalling contribute to cancer growth, metastasis, and the generation of a pro-tumourigenic microenvironment in breast and other solid cancers.

Research Program Arms 

Mechanical Stress in Cancer Growth and Metastasis

We have discovered that compressive force activates the mechanosensitive ion channel Piezo1 in breast cancer, triggering downstream Rho-ROCK signalling via calcium influx (Boyle et al, Sci Adv 2026; Boyle et al, Small GTPases 2020). This promotes proliferation, invasiveness, and growth. Using cutting-edge and physically pertinent systems, including applying different physical forces to cells/tissue, culturing tissue as explants and examining effects of mechanical force in models of cancer progression and metastasis, the focus of this research is to investigate the cancer-promoting signals elicited by different mechanical stimuli and identify ways in which we can intervene to halt the effects of forces on cancer progression. 

Harnessing Mechanobiological Players for Clinical Application

Much study regarding mechanobiological proteins and molecules has focussed on fine details of structure and mechanism. Recently, roles in disease have begun to be investigated and harnessing mechanobiological players as clinical prognostics or diagnostics is a new notion. Using established models of explant culture, mammary tumour growth, and metastasis, we are investigating how changes in the environment can modulate tumour progression by regulating expression and activation of mechanobiological players, roles in promotion or suppression of tumours, and how the context of cancer subtype specifically affects this. 

ROCK Regulation of the Matrix and Microenvironment

We have demonstrated that activation of ROCK leads to paracrine signals elicited from tumour cells that act on stromal cells within the microenvironment to reprogram them to a tumour-promoting form (Boyle et al, Nat Cell Biol 2020; Boyle et al, J Prot Res 2020; Pittar et al, Cytoskeleton 2024). This arm of research investigates wider changes in the microenvironment that occur upon activation of the ROCK protein, including upon immune cells and the extracellular matrix, and whether/how ROCK and its downstream paracrine signals drive the formation of distant metastases.