Speaker
Description
Understanding how cells navigate through dense and heterogeneous microenvironments is a fundamental challenge in biomechanics, with direct implications for cancer metastasis, immune surveillance, and tissue morphogenesis. In confined spaces, the nucleus, the largest and stiffest cellular organelle, acts as the primary physical bottleneck, limiting deformability and determining the success of migration through narrow gaps.
In this work, we present an advanced computational framework based on geometric surface partial differential equations (GS-PDE) to simulate active cell migration. Our approach treats the plasma membrane and the nuclear envelope as evolving, energetic closed surfaces governed by force-balance equations, integrated with a chemotactic signalling mechanism that drives autonomous motion. We investigate various migration scenarios by systematically varying the mechanical properties of the cell and its nucleus, as well as the geometric features of the surrounding environment. Our results highlight how the interplay between nuclear properties and obstacle morphology dictates the efficiency of the migration process. In general, this framework provides a robust and flexible tool for dissecting the biophysical strategies cells employ to bypass physical barriers, offering new insights into the mechanobiology of invasive cellular behaviour.
