Kollektive Bewegung von zusammenhängenden Zellen

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The prime body tissues, epithelia, consist of layers of physically adherent cells. The adhesion couples the motion of cells within these cohesive structures giving rise to a collective motion, where cells retain their neighbors exhibiting sliding only on long time scales. This collective motion lies at the heart of growth and arrangement of epithelial tissues during morphogenesis, their healing after lesion and the invasion of cancerous cells into their midst. Also microbial cells form cohesive sheets within biofilms. As biofilms are a common source of infections an understanding of the collective motion of cells governing biofilm growth is pivotal to prevent spreading of biofilms. The goal of this research program is to develop a theoretical description of the collective motion of cohesive cells to enable a direct connection between cell mechanical properties and the dynamic behavior of cells within tissues. First tissue spreading due to collective cell motion is investigated, followed by a description of collective motion triggered by cell proliferation as it arises in bulk tissue and bacterial biofilms. Employing both computer simulations and mathematical modeling the morphology of collectively moving cells and explicit scenarios during development and tumor invasion are studied. Throughout the project mathematical models and experimental data will be compared and evaluated. The results are relevant to understand how mechanical perturbations can trigger a wound healing response, how tumor cells can invade a cohesive tissue and how cell mechanical and dynamical properties determine the morphogenesis of tissues. Concerning the limits of pharmacological reagents to fight bacterial infections the results of this program might help to invent new mechanical methods to remove or destroy biofilms in critical settings.