Scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a protein that may inhibit cellular movement, or migration. The protein, CIB1, or calcium and integrin-binding protein 1, was originally discovered at UNC in 1997 as a blood platelet protein that may play a role in clotting. Cell migration belongs to the most rudimentary of cellular functions that allow processes such as fetal development, new blood vessel formation and wound healing to occur in humans. Increased tumor cell migration also is one of the hallmarks of highly aggressive, rapidly spreading cancer tumors. The study appears in the August issue of The Journal of Cell Biology.
