EMS-ESMTB Summer School “Mathematical Biology of Tissue Mechanics”

Description and aim

The objective of this summer school is to bring together 40 young researchers in the quantitative life sciences and teach them a range of mathematical approaches to analyze and model the biomechanics of tissues and the collective behavior of cells.  The workshop will be jointly organized with the European Mathematics Society and the  European Society for Mathematical and Theoretical Biology (ESMTB), and fits into a series of annual workshops on mathematical biology organized with the EMS (http://www.esmtb.org/schools).

The school will focus on hands-on group work, with participants focusing on one out of five biological problems. Each of the problems is suggested by one of the speakers, who will mentor their working group in an “off-hands” manner. To ensure that each group has access to a variety of approaches, the mentors will roam around the working groups.

The mornings will start with plenary lectures that will showcase exemplary stories that have combined mathematical modeling and experimental biology, as well as discuss a number of mathematical methods in-depth. The lectures will cover a range of topics, including, but not limited to: vertex-based models, cellular automata models, cellular Potts modeling, partial-differential equations, and hybrid individual-based and continuum approaches.

Projects

TEAM A: Spatial effects in the pathogenesis of blood cancers, including leukemia

- Mentors: Vitaly Volpert and Anass Bouchnita, CNRS Lyon, France

- Mathematical methods: Hybrid, cell-based models based on Lagrangian dynamics

TEAM B: Modelling pigment cell interactions in zebrafish skin patterns

- Mentors: Roeland Merks, CWI and U Leiden, The Netherlands

- Mathematical Methods: modelling of tissues using the cellular Potts model, vertex-based models and using cellular automata.

TEAM C: Modeling of cell-cell signaling in discrete cell lattices with reaction-diffusion systems - Mentors: Andreas Deutsch and Walter

- Mathematical Methods: Cell-cell signaling in discrete cell lattices, reaction-diffusion systems

Team D: Zebrafish epiboly and formation of compartments in 3D tissues: coupling mechanical behavior and gene regulation

- Mentors: Dr. Nadine Peyriéras and Dr. René Doursat, BioEmergences, CNRS USR3695, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

- Mathematical Methods: Modeling cross-talk between biomechanics and gene regulation