Regensburg 2019 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 9: Computational biophysics

BP 9.3: Vortrag

Dienstag, 2. April 2019, 10:15–10:30, H11

A framework for spatially embedded biological network growth — •Torsten Paul¹, Felix Repp², and Philip Kollmannsberger¹ — ¹Center for Computational and Theoretical Biology, University of Würzburg, Germany — ²Department of Neurophysiology, University of Würzburg, Germany

Spatial biological networks are important for signaling, transportation and stability, and are found on many scales, from osteocytes and neuronal connections up to vasculature or roots. By combining image analysis of such multicellular networks with graph theory, they can be compared quantitatively to different random or regular networks. The biological interpretation of the results so far was limited, as we lack an appropriate model linking local cell behavior and tissue organization during growth to the resulting global network architecture. Here, we introduce a new 3D parallel simulation framework that aims to fill this gap. We model spatial network growth as a biased correlated random walk where growth direction and branching probability depend on the local environment, e.g. soluble cues, tissue anisotropy, or other cells. This is implemented by representing the environment as a multi-layer image from which gradients, structure tensors and other influencing parameters are calculated. Our generally applicable framework will help to better understand how biological network patterns depend on the growth rules under different environmental conditions, and to identify the biological cause of deviations from healthy network function.