For Halloween, the pumpkins, goblins, witches, and ghosts may not quite fit under the microscope, but there is a skeleton here that we study at the Holland Laboratory: the cytoskeleton, which is composed of molecules that give shape to every one of our billions of individual cells. The picture shows actin, a part of the cytoskeleton, stretches from one attachment point to another (like strings on a tent) helps in maintaining the triangular shape of the cell.

At the Jerome H. Holland Laboratory, Dr. Xi Zahn's group studies the molecules that control the structural changes and the interaction with other cell parts in response to signals from the outside of the cell. This molecular control which determines if cells move in favorable ways such as in wound healing, or dangerously such as in the spread of cancer.