15 - Understanding spatio-temporal dynamics of the cytosol network during cell migration

University of Sussex (UOS) - United Kingdom

Student: Davide Cusseddu

Supervisor: Anotida Madzvamuse,  Stephanie Portet

Based on experimentally observed structures (IBIDI, GRAD, UKA, JUELICH, UDE, WEIZMANN, MBI, KNAW), we will develop and adapt current mathematical models of reaction-diffusion type (in 2D, 3D, on surfaces) to describe the spatio-temporal life cycles of actin and keratin filaments, their binding proteins, focal adhesions, hemidesmosomes and various regulatory molecules. We propose to adapt reaction models for actin and keratin filaments to describe biochemical processes such as nucleation, polymerisation and solubilisation, depolymerisation. The models derived will be solved efficiently, accurately and robustly by the use of moving and surface finite element methods in 2- and 3-D and on complex evolving topological surfaces. Ultimately, we will develop an integrated computational model to link the dependencies between the individual components of the life cycle.