Advisor
Sebastian Sandersius
Graduate Student
Graduate Student
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Background My field of interest lies in modeling the dynamics and morphogenesis of multicellular systems, specifically the developing embryo. I have been working with my advisor, Timothy Newman, on developing a computational modeling framework to simulate large numbers of strongly interacting cells in three dimensions. In the model, individual cells are composed of hundreds of "elements" which have short-range visco-elastic interactions. In this way, we are able to capture adaptive cell shape dynamics. At this point we have also shown that the bulk visco-elastic properties of these interacting elements show remarkably good comparison to measurements of micro-rheology experiments on living cells. We are now in a position to apply this model to the developing embryo of a specific organism and we plan to integrate bioinformatics into the model to have highly detailed simulations of embryonic morphogenesis. Webpage: http://sebastian.sandersius.googlepages.com |
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This image shows a cell made up of 256 interacting elements (little green dots). The elements interact with their nearest neighbors via an elastic potetial. Placed in the middle of the cell is a 'bead' (red ball). By perturbing the bead, we can measure the local viscoelastic properties of this virtual cells.
This image shows the outer 'cortex' of a cell made up of 1024 elements with nearest neighbor interactions represented with connecting 'filaments'.
Same 256 element cell as above but from above view with nearest neighbor interactions represented with connecting 'filaments'.
Sebastian Sandersius
Arizona State University
Department of Physics
PO Box 871504
Tempe, AZ 85287
email: Sebastian
Arizona State University
Department of Physics
PO Box 871504
Tempe, AZ 85287
email: Sebastian