Related papers: Mechanically-driven growth and competition in a Vo…
Collective cell migration underlies important biological processes, such as embryonic development, wound healing and cancer invasion. While many aspects of single cell movements are now well established, the mechanisms leading to…
The Voronoi-based cellular model is highly successful in describing the motion of two-dimensional confluent cell tissues. In the homogeneous version of this model, the energy of each cell is determined solely by its geometric shape and…
Cell motion inside dense tissues governs many biological processes, including embryonic development and cancer metastasis, and recent experiments suggest that these tissues exhibit collective glassy behavior. To make quantitative…
The evolution of various competing cell types in tissues, and the resulting persistent tissue population, is studied numerically and analytically in a particle-based model of active tissues. Mutations change the properties of cells in…
Cancer is a disease of cellular regulation, often initiated by genetic mutation within cells, and leading to a heterogeneous cell population within tissues. In the competition for nutrients and growth space within the tumors the phenotype…
Cancer cells obtain mutations which rely on the production of diffusible growth factors to confer a fitness benefit. These mutations can be considered cooperative, and studied as public goods games within the framework of evolutionary game…
In vivo and in vitro cells rely on the support of an underlying biocompatible substrate, such as the extracellular matrix or a culture substrate, to spread and proliferate. The mechanical and chemical properties of such structures play a…
Collective cell migration is a highly regulated process involved in wound healing, cancer metastasis and morphogenesis. Mechanical interactions among cells provide an important regulatory mechanism to coordinate such collective motion.…
In this thesis we develop minimal models of the relationship between motility, growth, and evolution of cancer cells. We utilise simple simulations of a population of individual cells in space to examine how changes in mechanical properties…
Tumor growth is associated with cell invasion and mass-effect, which are traditionally formulated by mathematical models, namely reaction-diffusion equations and biomechanics. Such models can be personalized based on clinical measurements…
Mechanical models for tumor growth have been used extensively in recent years for the analysis of medical observations and for the prediction of cancer evolution based on imaging analysis. This work deals with the numerical approximation of…
Cooperation is prevalent in nature, not only in the context of social interactions within the animal kingdom, but also on the cellular level. In cancer for example, tumour cells can cooperate by producing growth factors. The evolution of…
In this paper we present a study of local dynamics of the growth of cancer tumor and healthy cells considering the presence of nutrients in the system. We also analyze the evolution of system if we take indirectly into account the level of…
We consider two minimal mathematical models for cancer dynamics and self-adaptation. We aim to capture the interplay between the rapid progression of cancer growth and the possibility to leverage and enhance self-adaptive defense mechanisms…
Environmental and genetic mutations can transform the cells in a co-operating healthy tissue into an ecosystem of individualistic tumour cells that compete for space and resources. Various selection forces are responsible for driving the…
The unwelcome evolution of malignancy during cancer progression emerges through a selection process in a complex heterogeneous population structure. In the present work, we investigate evolutionary dynamics in a phenotypically heterogeneous…
The self-organization of cells into complex tissues relies on a tight coordination of cell behavior. Identifying the cellular processes driving tissue growth is key to understanding the emergence of tissue forms and devising targeted…
Tumor development is an evolutionary process in which a heterogeneous population of cells with differential growth capabilities compete for resources in order to gain a proliferative advantage. What are the minimal ingredients needed to…
Most human tumors result from the accumulation of multiple genetic and epigenetic alterations in a single cell. Mutations that confer a fitness advantage to the cell are known as driver mutations and are causally related to tumorigenesis.…
Research into somatic mutations in cancer cell DNA and their role in tumour growth and progression between successive stages is crucial for improving our understanding of cancer evolution. Mathematical and computer modelling can provide…