As a non-canonical collagen receptor, Ddr may also interact with other collagen receptors, such as integrins (known to play roles in wrapping glia development; Xie and Auld, 2011), to sense and remodel the extracellular matrix and permit extension of glia processes between axons, similar to its roles in promoting tumor metastasis (Itoh, 2018). The gene discussed is ITGA2; the disease is neoplasm.