Dresden 2020 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 8: Poster I

BP 8.8: Poster

Monday, March 16, 2020, 17:30–19:30, P2/1OG

Hydrodynamics of pumping cell aggregates — •Max Kerr Winter and Guillaume Salbreux — The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK

Cavitation events within tissues are ubiquitous in developmental biology. In order to study such phenomena, we derive a hydrodynamic theory of cells forming aggregates and cavities by the combined action of adhesion forces and the active, polar pumping of fluid. The theory describes a coarse grained fluid consisting of cells in a medium of solutes and water. In the limit of passive, apolar cells, we investigate the steady state phase separation behaviour of the fluid in response to the strength of cell-cell adhesions. For sufficiently strong adhesions, the system separates into two phases differing by their cell density. We also study the linear stability of active, polar cells and find the system can be driven away from a uniform state by active pumping of solutes at topological defects in the polarity field. This theory takes inspiration from recent experiments with mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) [Shahbazi et al., Nature, 2017], where spherical ESC aggregates form cavities by the coordination of adhesion, apicobasal polarity, and active pumping.