Dresden 2020 – scientific programme

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PLV: Plenarvorträge

PLV VII

PLV VII: Plenary Talk

Wednesday, March 18, 2020, 08:30–09:15, HSZ 01

Physics of Morphogenesis — •Stephan Grill — Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden — Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life, TU Dresden

One of the most remarkable examples of self-organized structure formation is the development of a complex organism from a single fertilized egg. With the identification of the molecules that participate in this process, attention has now turned to capturing the physical principles that govern the emergence of biological form. The movements inside cells and tissues that give rise to patterns and shape reflect the action of physical forces. However, the biochemical systems that guide morphogenesis are tightly intertwined with active mechanical processes. How such coupled mechanical and chemical systems self-organize, and how these self-organized modules are guided by genetic programs is not well understood. In this presentation, I will give an overview of how mechanical processes couple to regulation and biochemistry in living biological matter. I will discuss examples of mechanochemical coupling that we have been working on on the scales of molecules, cells and organisms, and present a theory of guided mechanochemical self- organization we have used to investigate morphogenetic events in the development of a nematode worm and a flour beetle.