Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 36: Posters: Tissue Dynamics, Charge Effects, and Anomalous Transport
BP 36.4: Poster
Thursday, March 25, 2010, 17:15–20:00, Poster B2
Vertex Model for Mechanics and Dynamics of Epithelia — •Douglas B. Staple1, Reza Farhadifar1, Suzanne Eaton2, and Frank Jülicher1 — 1Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany — 2Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany
Epithelia are sheets of cells that organize into specific geometrical arrangements or morphologies essential for proper tissue functioning. Here we represent epithelia as networks of polygons: stable and stationary network configurations obey force balance and are represented as local minima of a work function. We describe the ground-state phase diagram to our model, identifying transitions relevant to tissue growth, mechanics, and cell extrusion. The dynamics of cell extrusion and cell-boundary rearrangements depend critically on energetic barriers arising naturally in our model, and are well understood in terms of simple geometric arguments.