Berlin 2024 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 20: Poster IIIa

BP 20.6: Poster

Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 11:00–14:30, Poster B

Mesoscopic hydrodynamic modeling of Trypanosoma brucei — •Zihan Tan, Julian Isaac Ufoma Peters, and Holger Stark — Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität Berlin, 10623 Berlin, Germany

Trypanosoma brucei is notorious for causing African trypanosomiasis also known as sleeping sickness. Due to significant challenges in experimentation, a physical understanding of how T. brucei interacts with fluid environments and navigates through confinements, typically in blood vessels but also in tissue, remains largely elusive. To this end, mesoscopic hydrodynamic modeling can provide additional insights. Through elaborate comparison with experiments, our group has developed an in-silico T. brucei model coupled with a viscous solvent, simulated by multiparticle collision dynamics (MPCD). The T. brucei body is discretized into vertices and facets, allowing for adequate bending and torsion while satisfying surface and volume constraints. Moreover, a flagellum, starting from a pocket at the thicker posterior end of the body, is laterally attached. A sinusoidal bending wave is imposed along the flagellum. It deforms the whole cell body and through the interaction with the ambient fluid generates propulsion. Since the dynamics of MPCD solvents is independently computed inside each cubic collision unit, we could considerably accelerate our simulations using GPU parallel computing. Our model has been validated to exhibit realistic hydrodynamic and mechanical properties of T. brucei. In particular, we focus on how the model T. brucei navigates through a microchannel with constrictions or containing hard or soft obstacles.

Keywords: Microswimmers; Mesoscopic Hydrodynamics; Multiparticle Collision Dynamics; Active Matter; Parasite