# First person – Jessika Wise

## TL;DR

This paper explores how hydrogel stiffness affects cancer cell behavior in 3D culture, focusing on breast cancer cell lines.

## Contribution

The study reveals that hydrogel stiffness influences EMT in MCF7 but not in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells.

## Key findings

- Gelatin-methacryloyl hydrogel stiffness impacts epithelial-mesenchymal transition in MCF7 cells.
- MDA-MB-231 cells show no significant EMT changes with varying hydrogel stiffness.
- The findings highlight cell line-specific responses to mechanical cues in 3D culture.

## Abstract

First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Biology Open, helping researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Jessika Wise is first author on ‘
Gelatin-methacryloyl hydrogel stiffness influences epithelial-mesenchymal transition in MCF7 but not MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells in 3D culture’, published in BiO. Jessika conducted the research described in this article while a PhD candidate under co-supervision by Dr Elisabeth Phillips, Professor Khoon Lim, Professor Tim Woodfield and Associate Professor Margaret Currie at University of Otago Christchurch, Christchurch, New Zealand. She is now a Laboratory Manager/Research Fellow in the labs of Associate Professor Anna Pilbrow and Professor Chris Pemberton at the University of Otago Christchurch, where her research focuses on cardiovascular biomarker discovery and development and human cellular models of ischaemia-reperfusion injury in acute coronary syndromes.