Alex Mogilner, Courant Institute, New York University

Cell migration is a fundamentally important phenomenon underlying wound healing, tissue development, immune response and cancer metastasis. Understanding basic physics of the cell migration presented a great challenge until, in the last three decades, a combination of biological, biophysical and mathematical approaches shed light on basic mechanisms of the cell migration. I will first focus on the simplest case of single2D cell. I will describe models, based on nonlinear PDE free boundary problem.The model makes a non-intuitive prediction: cells often move along circular trajectories. I will show how experimental data compares to the model.

Most cells, however, migrate collectively, not individually, and in 3D.I will introduce experimental data on collective migration of two heart progenitor cells in Ciona embryo. These cells crawl cohesively squeezing between stiff ectoderm and elastic endoderm with persistent leader-trailer polarity.I will present simulations based on the Cellular Potts Model that shed light on design principles of this motile system.

*Email Qixuan Wang for link