Quantitative models for building and growing fated small cell networks
Small cell clusters exhibit numerous phenomena typically associated with complex systems, such as division of labour and programmed cell death.…
Interface FocusDevelopmental Dynamics
The Developmental Dynamics group combines experiments, theory and computing to elucidate the contributions of encoded genomic instructions and self-organizing physical mechanisms to embryonic development.
Our theoretical and computational work is designed to integrate and abstract rapidly accumulating heterogeneous datasets, to propose critical tests of multiscale regulatory mechanisms, and to guide our own genetic and imaging experiments. Our research is organized around three main themes: the mechanistic modeling of pattern formation and morphogenesis; the synthesis and decomposition of developmental trajectories; and the modeling of human developmental defects. Current projects focus on small cell clusters (motivated by our work on early embryos and animal germline development), graph dynamics in rearranging cell networks (motivated by problems of epithelial morphogenesis), and the effects of activating mutations in signaling enzymes (motivated by our work on a large class of human developmental abnormalities).
Research Highlights
Canary in the cardiac-valve coal mine: Flow velocity and inferred shear during prosthetic valve closure –predictors of blood damage and clotting
Lawrence N. Scotten, E. Kolahdouz
To demonstrate a clear link between predicted blood shear forces during valve closure and thrombogenicity that explains the thrombogenic difference…
bioRxiv:2022.06.23.497372Sex-specific topological differences in germline cell lineage trees
Rocky Diegmiller, J. I. Alsous, S. Shvartsman
A conserved phase of gametogenesis is the development of oocytes and sperm within cell clusters (germline cysts) that arise through…
bioRxiv:2022.05.18.492500
