Magnet-lab researchers make cover of Nature

A group of researchers representing The Florida State University, the National Institutes of Health and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute-Janelia Farm Research Campus had their work featured as the cover story in the Nov. 25, 2010, issue of the prestigious journal Nature.

The paper, co-written by Michael Davidson and Ericka B. Ramko of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, is an investigation of “Nanoscale Architecture of Integrin-based Cell Adhesions.”

“The primary significance of this paper is that it represents perhaps the most significant biological problem that has been partially solved using the new superresolution microscopy techniques that have emerged in the past couple of years,” said Davidson, who also is an assistant scholar/scientist in Florida State’s Department of Biological Sciences.

The research also represents the first major step in unraveling the complex molecular structure of the cellular focal adhesion, which is responsible for cell migration — that is, cancer metastasis.