Speaker
Description
In this talk, I will introduce a modelling approach for single and collective cell migration through confined non-isotropic environments using geometric surface partial differential equations. By assuming that cell migration is driven by cell surface biochemical processes and surface mechanics, the evolution law of the cell and nuclear envelope is modelled through a force balance equation posed at each surface material point in the normal direction. The force balance equation naturally encodes most of the biophysical properties of energetic closed surfaces such as surface tension, bending energy, surface area/volume constraint/conservation as well as taking into account intra- and extra-cellular forces, cell-to-cell interactions, cell-to-environment interactions, and so forth. This modelling approach leads to 4th-order geometric surface partial differential equations which are solved efficiently by employing an operator-splitting approach within an evolving surface finite element method. Numerical simulations demonstrate the generality, applicability and predictive power of this modelling approach; it offers a new and robust modelling formalism that bridges the gap between experiments and theory of single and collective cell migration through biologically relevant non-isotropic and confined environments.
