Theorie Kolloquium | April 17, 16:30

Simulating growing tissues


Growth of solid tumors or metastasis requiers, besides massive biomedical changes, also a spatial remodeling of the tissue. This remodeling, often including displacements of healthy tissue around, requires mechanical work to be done. These mechanics of growth has attracted a lot of attention in recent years, but still remains poorly understood. We use particle based simulations to study mechanical properties and effects in growing and motile tissues. These simulations have been helpful in understanding, interpreting and designing experiments. I will present an overview of the simulation thechnique, and how it contributed to recent develobments in three dimensional tissue growth and collective cell migration. In a recent series of simulations and close experimental collaborations we found important interfacial and surface effects that lead to novel phenomena. For example, the tissue divides favorably at a free surface, even without any nutrient effects. This leads to the possibility and stability of a negative homeostatic pressure. In turn, a negative homeostatic pressure leads to naturally to finite steady states and tensile states.


Jens Elgeti, Institute for Complex Systems, FZ Jülich
Seminar Room TP 0.03
Contact: Joachim Krug