Dresden 2026 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 14: Poster Session II
BP 14.49: Poster
Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 18:00–21:00, P2
Pancreatic Network Morphogenesis — •Yasmin Abdelghaffar1, Coline Schewin2, Szabolcs Horvát3, Monalisa Mishra2, Lydie Flasse2, Carl Modes2, 4, Anne Grapin-Botton2, and Benjamin M. Friedrich1, 4 — 1Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life, Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany — 2Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany — 3Reykjavik University, Reykjavik, Iceland — 4Center for Systems Biology Dresden, Dresden, Germany
During the course of development, the mammalian pancreatic ductal network remodels from a fully connected plexus to a tree-like branched network optimized for fluid transport. Previous in silico modeling suggested that this remodeling could be guided by flow through the network [1]. However, the physical mechanism of flow sensing in the developing pancreas remains open.
We quantitatively analyze duct network morphology at subsequent developmental time-points, to reverse-engineer putative physical mechanisms of network remodeling. This includes a spatial zonation of statistical network properties and an empirical Murray's law relating duct diameter to hierarchy level (Strahler number). We put forward theoretical descriptions, e.g., of cilia-based flow sensing, which reproduce distinct variants of Murray's law, which could be distinguished by future experiments.
[1] Dahl-Jesen et al., PLoS Biology, 2018.
Keywords: Network morphogenesis; Network remodeling; Spatial networks; Flow networks; Cilia