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| Invited Talk, Friday, 12:00 – 12:30 |
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| From waves to motion: Physics
approaches to characterize and control individual and collective cell migration
Wolfgang Losert
University of Maryland, IREAP, Paint
Branch Drive Bldg 223, College Park, MD 20742, USA |
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| Contact:
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Migrating cells and cell groups have amazing abilities to avoid obstacles
and to be directed to their target location in many contexts, in particular
development, immune response, and cancer. Our focus is on the physical
processes that direct and facilitate migration of Dictyostelium discoideum,
a model system for the study of chemotaxis and directed cell migration.
Since a key manifestation of internal physical processes within a cell
are changes in cell shape, we use shape dynamics to gain insights into
the physics of cell migration. We find that global and local metrics
of the dynamically changing shape of the cell highlight distinct physical
processes. A global measure of shape shows rhythmic oscillations
suggestive of contractions but obscures protrusive activity of the cells.
A local measure of shape hides the contractile cycle but highlights the
protrusive activity of a cell. We find that protrusion dynamics are
wave-like under many conditions, indicative of actin polymerization waves
that start near the leading edge of a cell and travel backward along alternating
sides. Actin polymerization waves offer a powerful framework to understand
why cells move in a zig-zag manner, maintain direction on short times,
and are guided by surface nanotopography. |
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