Northwestern University researchers have developed a novel, three-dimensional model that allows scientists to observe how interacting with the microenvironment of metastatic melanoma cells induces normal skin cells to become similar to aggressive cancer cells that migrate and spread throughout the body. The model, developed by Mary J. C. Hendrix and colleagues at Children’s Memorial Research Center, consists of a three-dimensional collagen matrix preconditioned by malignant melanoma cells. Hendrix is president and scientific director of the Children’s Memorial Research Center, professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a member of the executive committees of The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Center for Genetic Medicine at Northwestern University.The model was described in an article in the Nov. 15 issue of Cancer Research.