MSC Seminar. 17/09/2024. Leonardo Brunnet (UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brésil): “Active Cell Segregation.”

The literature on cell segregation dates back to the XXth century and proposed various hypotheses to explain the phenomenon, such as differential adhesion between cells of different tissues, variations in cell cortex tension, or differences in cell velocities. These hypotheses began to be tested through computer simulations in the 1990s. I will present simulations within the context of active matter, specifically using active particles interacting with either different intensities of adhesion forces, or with different velocities.
To simulate deformable cells, we use rings composed of active particles connected by springs, and explore the effect of tension differences. We also develop a theoretical approach, extending previous mean cluster models used in binary mixtures to include active particles. This allows us to relate the different time scales observed in cluster growth during segregation with cell alignment.