Neural tube closure in mammals requires the sealing of the hindbrain neuropore (HNP) gap. Failure in this critical process results in fatal birth defects. Yet, the physical forces orchestrating this morphogenetic event at the cellular and tissue level have remained elusive.
Here, we combine live and fixed imaging of mouse embryos with cell-based computational modeling to investigate the...
Collective cell movements play a critical role in guiding embryonic development, wound repair, and disease progression, such as cancer metastasis. The coordination of these movements is strongly influenced by mechanical forces. Biological tissues can be viewed as soft, out-of-equilibrium systems whose constituent cells continuously generate forces and undergo rearrangements. During...
Vertex models have been incredibly successful in describing the mechanics of epithelia. However, many models do not systematically consider heterogeneities in the cellular mechanical and biochemical properties. Using three-dimensional force inference in intestinal organoids, we show that cells indeed have inhomogeneous tissue tensions. In particular, outer basal surface tensions at topological...
Tissue morphogenesis emerges from the collective mechanical behaviour of epithelial cells, where gene expression, cytoskeletal dynamics and cell cycle progression combine to drive coordinated tissue-scale deformations. Neural tube closure is a paradigmatic example whose failure gives rise to severe congenital conditions including spina bifida. Yet quantitative links between gene-level...
Vertex models have emerged as a central computational and theoretical framework for understanding how mechanical interactions at the level of individual cells give rise to collective behaviours in developing and homeostatic tissues \cite{briñas2024,alt2017}. In these models, epithelial and other confluent tissues are represented as tilings of polygons or polyhedra whose vertices encode...
