We study morphogenesis: how cells and their extracellular matrix build and maintain the form of tissues, and how those rules are subverted in disease. Cancer is our main model. As breast and ovarian cancer cells invade and spread, they reorganise themselves and their surroundings through adhesion, matrix remodelling and changes in the sugars that coat their surfaces, and are in turn shaped by the physical and chemical properties of that matrix. Increasingly, we ask how ageing alters this dialogue: how senescent cells, and reactive dicarbonyls such as methylglyoxal that accumulate with age and in diabetes, change the matrix and make tissues more hospitable to cancer. We combine 3D culture, patient-derived material, organ-on-chip devices and biophysical measurements with computer simulations and theory, working closely with physicists, engineers and chemists.