Dynamical Cell Systems · ICR

Dynamical Cell Systems Group

The Institute of Cancer Research

Welcome to our lab

Systems approaches to cell shape, signalling and cancer

We map how signalling networks and mechanical stimuli produce and interpret cellular morphology to influence proliferation, stress responses and metastasis. Our work blends automated imaging, large‑scale perturbation and rigorous time‑series modelling.

Explore research Recent publications

About the PI

Professor Chris Bakal

Group Leader, Dynamical Cell Systems

Professor Bakal studies the biological switches that allow cells to change shape, become cancerous and spread. He leads an interdisciplinary group at the ICR using imaging, genomics and computation to study signalling and morphology in cancer.

Research programmes

Four focal programmes

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Representative morphological states from a high‑content screen that identified regulators of discrete cell shapes. (Adapted from Yin et al., Nat Cell Biol. 2013; Fig. 1.)

How do signalling networks encode and control cell shape?

Cell shape is both an output and an input to signalling networks. We investigate how biochemical pathways and mechanical cues are integrated to produce distinct morphological states and how those states influence downstream decisions in cancer cells.

Figure 3 from 'A screen for morphological complexity identifies regulators of switch-like transitions between discrete cell shapes' (Nat Cell Biol, 2013) — morphology phenocluster analysis and representative cell-shape phenotypes used in high-content image-based genetic screens.

Discovery with high‑content, image‑based genetic screens

Automated microscopy and large‑scale perturbations allow systematic mapping of gene function in the context of morphology, cell cycle and signalling dynamics.

Figure 1 (overview/representative images) from 'Receptor-Driven ERK Pulses Reconfigure MAPK Signaling and Enable Persistence of Drug-Adapted BRAF-Mutant Melanoma Cells' (Cell Systems, 2020) — illustrative ERK-KTR live-cell reporter images and schematics showing pulsatile ERK signalling relevant to cell-cycle–dependent drug responses.

How cell‑cycle state gates signalling responses and therapy outcomes

Cell‑cycle position profoundly affects signalling dynamics and drug response. We interrogate how oscillatory programmes and state‑dependent signalling shape sensitivity to targeted therapies.

Integration of gene expression modules with image‑derived morphological states highlights phenotype‑specific signalling networks linked to cancer cell fitness. (Adapted from Sero et al., Genome Biol. 2022.)

Mechanisms that determine cancer cell fitness under stress

We study the determinants of cancer cell survival and fitness under genetic, metabolic and drug‑induced stress, focusing on links between morphology, signalling rewiring and adaptive responses.

Selected publications

Recent and defining work

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2013

A screen for morphological complexity identifies regulators of switch‑like transitions between discrete cell shapes

Nat Cell Biol

↗2022

Identification of phenotype‑specific networks from paired gene expression–cell shape imaging data

Genome Biology

↗2016

Time series modelling of live‑cell shape dynamics for image‑based phenotypic profiling

Nat Commun

↗2011

Drosophila RNAi screening in a postgenomic world

Brief Funct Genomics

↗2013

Chris Bakal: Look and learn (Interview)

J Cell Biol

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