Speaker
Description
Mechanical behavior affects multiple biological scales, from tissue organization to cell migration to subcellular patterning. I will show how CompuCell3D can model different aspects of cell mechanics within a common cell-based framework. CC3D cells are extended, deformable objects with explicit interfaces and subcellular structure, allowing linkage of adhesion, shape, force balance, polarization, and motion to emergent biological form and function.
I will illustrate this multiscale perspective with three examples. The organization and disorganization of epithelial sheets, showing how variation in cell-cell contact energies can reproduce subtype-specific morphologies in lung adenocarcinoma \cite{Zha_2024}. Second, a three-dimensional model of cell migration in a chemical field, where chemotaxis emerges from the interplay of directional sensing, polarity reorientation, protrusive activity, and migration \cite{Dal-Castel_2025}. Third, a subcellular model of planar cell polarity in which intracellular reorganization of polarization components and their intercellular interactions generate tissue-scale alignment, showing how coherent polarity can arise from local rules in the absence of a tissue-wide morphogen gradient \cite{Thayambath_Belmonte_2026}. Together, these examples highlight how to integrate mechanical and regulatory processes in a unified computational framework to study cell behavior across scales.
Bibliography
@article{Zha_2024, title={Morphological basis of the lung adenocarcinoma subtypes}, volume={27}, DOI={10.1016/j.isci.2024.109742}, number={5}, journal={iScience}, author={Zha, Linjun and Matsu-ura, Toru and Sluka, James P. and Murakawa, Tomohiro and Tsuta, Koji}, year={2024}, pages={109742}}
@article{Dal-Castel_2025, title={CompuCell3D model of cell migration reproduces chemotaxis}, volume={666}, DOI={10.1016/j.physa.2025.130524}, journal={Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications}, author={Dal-Castel, Pedro C. and Thomas, Gilberto L. and Perrone, Gabriel C. and De Almeida, Rita M.C.}, year={2025}, pages={130524}}
@article{Thayambath_Belmonte_2026, title={Start small: A model for tissue-wide planar cell polarity without morphogens}, volume={22}, DOI={10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013938}, number={2}, journal={PLOS Computational Biology}, author={Thayambath, Abhisha and Belmonte, Julio M.}, year={2026}, pages={e1013938} }
