Computational modelling of cell movement and chemotaxis

细胞运动对健康和疾病都很重要。在健康情况下，白细胞必须从血管中迁移出来，通过组织到达需要它们的地方。相反，如果细胞在不应该移动的时候移动，就会造成巨大的伤害——最明显的例子是转移，当癌症从肿瘤扩散到身体的远处时。尽管如此，人们对细胞的运动知之甚少。我们建议建立一个精确模拟细胞运动的计算机模型，并用它来分类、测试和验证关于细胞如何运动的不同理论。我们还建议培训一名数学专家，这样他就可以跨入生物学领域。

Cell movement is important in health and in disease. In health, white blood cells must migrate out of blood vessels and through tissues to where they are needed. Conversely, if cells move when they should not, it can cause great harm - the most obvious example is metastasis, when a cancer spreads from a tumour to distant parts of the body. Despite this cell movement is poorly understood. We propose to build a computer model that accurately mimics cell movement, and to use it to sort, test and validate different theories of how cells move. We also propose to train a mathematics expert so he can cross over into the biology field.