Dr. Hedayatollah Hosseini delivered an insightful presentation as part of the ongoing TRIPM seminar series, focusing on the role of cancer cell plasticity in driving metastasis. The session attracted students and faculty from multiple departments, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue on emerging directions in cancer research. His talk emphasized epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) as a central mechanism underlying cancer cell plasticity, contributing to therapeutic resistance, tumor heterogeneity, and metastatic progression.
Dr. Hosseini is a translational scientist specializing in cancer metastasis and precision oncology. His research integrates biomarker discovery, disease modeling, and the development of clinically relevant applications aimed at improving cancer diagnosis and treatment.
During the presentation, Dr. Hosseini introduced Plastimos, a semi-automated imaging analysis pipeline designed to quantitatively assess EMT-driven plasticity in a high-throughput manner. The platform combines time-series imaging with deep learning–based cell segmentation and trajectory mapping to extract key phenotypic features, including cell motility, morphology, and proliferation.
Using breast cancer cell lines MCF7 and MDA-MB-231, the study demonstrated differential responses to EMT-inducing factors, including EGF and TGF-β1. Epithelial-like cells exhibited both molecular and phenotypic changes, whereas mesenchymal-like cells showed predominantly phenotypic adaptations. By assigning a Plasticity Index and deriving a composite Plasticity Score, Plastimos enables classification of cells along the EMT spectrum. This approach provides a robust framework for understanding metastatic behavior and supports the development of more targeted therapeutic strategies.
