Regensburg 2025 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 17: Poster Session II

BP 17.46: Poster

Dienstag, 18. März 2025, 18:00–20:30, P4

An FEM based framework to reconstruct cellular traction forces in arbitrary geometries — •Cornelis Mense and Ulrich Schwarz — Heidelberg University

In the last two decades, the reconstruction of cellular traction forces has been a valuable tool in mechanobiology and biomedical experiments. Traction forces are traditionally computed for displacements of soft elastic substrates, imaged using fluorescent micro-beads. These substrates have largely been planar surfaces, owing to the availability of methods by which to analyse such experimental data. But, as of late, a curiosity and drive has arisen to extend these experiments to arbitrary three-dimensional geometries. Here, a framework is proposed to inversely reconstruct tractions using the Finite Element Method. This method attempts to reduce noise and non-physical tractions by iteratively projecting experimental displacement fields onto force-balanced configurations using the principle of virtual work. The efficacy of the method is demonstrated through toy problems, wherein tractions are first prescribed onto a geometry to generate mock data sets of displacement fields. These fields are then artificially made noisy, after which the FEM software is tasked with retrieving the initially prescribed tractions. The experimental design space, that would be opened up by this framework, could prove a valuable tool in further understanding cell motility.

Keywords: Traction Force Microscopy; Finite Element Method; Cell Motility; Cells in Confined Geometry; Marker-Beads