Speaker
Description
Cell-proliferation dynamics shape the spatiotemporal organisation of developing and regenerating tissues, yet collective growth often emerges from heterogeneous cell-cycle behaviour at the single-cell level. In early animal embryos, initially synchronous divisions progressively lose synchrony after a well-characterised number of cycles, providing a setting to study how individual variability shapes population-level dynamics. We compare stochastic branching-process models of cell division with deterministic age-structured partial differential-equations formulations. We identify the assumptions of each framework and clarify how model choice affects biological interpretation, tractability, and suitability for different data types. We then introduce extensions incorporating cell-cycle variability and spatial structure. These spatial models explain proliferation patterns observed in large epithelial expansions visualised with FUCCI, and allow us to estimate the length scale over which confluent cell cultures can be meaningfully described as synchronous.
