Dresden 2026 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 27: Cell Mechanics I

BP 27.5: Talk

Thursday, March 12, 2026, 10:45–11:00, BAR/0205

Moving without motors: Amoeboid cell migration and shape dynamics driven by actin polymerization — •Winfried Schmidt, Alexander Farutin, and Chaouqi Misbah — Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, LIPhy, F-38000 Grenoble, France

Mammalian cell migration is essential for many physiological and pathological processes, such as embryonic development, wound healing, and cancer metastasis. Cells have developed the amoeboid migration mode, which is characterized by large, dynamic shape deformations. This strategy allows cells to move rapidly and in the absence of strong adhesion across a variety of different environments, including two-dimensional confinement, three-dimensional matrix, and bulk fluids. Molecular motors, such as myosin, are traditionally considered essential for cell polarization or motility. Here, a model of an amoeboid cell is analyzed both analytically and numerically. It is shown that actin polymerization alone is sufficient to trigger both cell polarity and motility, in line with recent experiments on T-lymphocytes showing that inhibition of molecular motors does not significantly affect motility. Depending on parameter values, the cells exhibit straight, circular, or even chaotic trajectories. A similar variety of motion is observed in experiments across multiple motile cells. These findings open up a new perspective on amoeboid motility, providing a scenario for the onset of polarity, migration, and dynamical cell shape changes without contractile activity.

Keywords: cell motility; nonlinear dynamics; cell cortex; actin polymerization; thin shell model