How cells connect to each other and to the extracellular matrix (ECM) was a sticky issue in the early 1980s. Integrins, molecules that hook the cytoskeleton to ECM proteins such as collagen and fibronectin, hadn't been discovered, but evidence for a link between external and internal fibers was mounting. For example, Irwin Singer (1979) observed that extracellular fibronectin molecules closely approached—or possibly attached to—intracellular actin. Several researchers postulated that membrane-spanning receptors made the connection. A pair of papers by post-doc Wen-Tien Chen of the University of California, San Diego, and his adviser S. Jonathan Singer bolstered the idea that cells deploy different membrane receptors to couple with different components of the matrix.
A new technique devised in Singer's lab gave the researchers a clearer look at the junction between cell and surface. They reared cells on a gelatin mat, which they could roll up like...
