Related papers: The Control of Branching Morphogenesis
Regulatory functions are essential in both socioeconomic and biological systems, from corporate managers to regulatory genes. Regulatory functions come with substantial costs and benefits, and the balance of the two is often taken for…
Based on a recently proposed non-equilibrium mechanism for spatial pattern formation [cond-mat/0312366] we study how morphogenesis can be controlled by locally coupled discrete dynamical networks, similar to gene regulation networks of…
Understanding the rules underlying organismal development is a major unsolved problem in biology. Each cell in a developing organism responds to signals in its local environment by dividing, excreting, consuming, or reorganizing, yet how…
The growth of plants is a hydromechanical phenomenon in which cells enlarge by absorbing water, while their walls expand and remodel under turgor-induced tension. In multicellular tissues, where cells are mechanically interconnected,…
The fundamental biological processes of development of tissues and organs in multicellular organisms is governed by various signaling molecules, which are called morphogens. It is known that spatial and temporal variations in concentration…
Modelling gene regulatory networks not only requires a thorough understanding of the biological system depicted but also the ability to accurately represent this system from a mathematical perspective. Throughout this chapter, we aim to…
Self-regulation of living tissue as an example of self-organization phenomena in hierarchical systems of biological, ecological, and social nature is under consideration. The characteristic feature of these systems is the absence of any…
The process of morphogenesis is an evolution of the shape of an organism together with the differentiation of its parts. This process encompasses numerous biological processes ranging from embryogenesis to regeneration following crisis such…
Many organisms exhibit branching morphologies that twist around each other and become entangled. Entanglement occurs when different objects interlock, creating complex and often irreversible configurations. This physical phenomenon is…
Morphogenesis is a tightly regulated process that has been studied for decades. We are developing data-based and image-basd mechanistic models for a range of developmental processes with a view to integrate the available knowledge and to…
The formation of microparticles requires the bending of the plasma membrane away from the cytosol. The capcity of the cell membrane to form a microparticle, and the rate of membrane deformation, are controlled by multiple factors, including…
Biological cells are able to generate intricate structures and respond to external stimuli, sculpting their membrane from within. Simplified biomimetic systems can aid in understanding the principles which govern these shape changes and…
Boundary-catalytic branching processes describe a broad class of natural phenomena where the population of diffusing particles grows due to their spontaneous binary branching (e.g., division, fission or splitting) on a catalytic boundary…
Cells contain elaborate and interconnected networks of protein polymers which make up the cytoskeleton. The cytoskeleton governs the internal positioning and movement of vesicles and organelles, and controls dynamic changes in cell…
Whereas the relationship between criticality of gene regulatory networks (GRNs) and dynamics of GRNs at a single cell level has been vigorously studied, the relationship between the criticality of GRNs and system properties at a higher…
As an injury heals, an embryo develops, or a carcinoma spreads, epithelial cells systematically change their shape. In each of these processes cell shape is studied extensively, whereas variation of shape from cell-to-cell is dismissed most…
Organoids are prototypes of human organs derived from cultured human stem cells. They provide a reliable and accurate experimental model to study the physical mechanisms underlying the early developmental stages of human organs…
Branched structures that evolve over time critically determine the function of various natural and engineered systems, including growing vasculature, neural arborization, pulmonary networks such as lungs, river basins, power distribution…
Rod-like bacteria maintain their cylindrical shapes with remarkable precision during growth. However, they are also capable to adapt their shapes to external forces and constraints, for example by growing into narrow or curved confinements.…
The process of morphogenesis, which can be defined as an evolution of the form of an organism, is one of the most intriguing mysteries in the life sciences. It is clear, that gene expression patterns cannot explain the development of the…