COLLOQUIUM 2025

Abstract

Visible motion might be the most apparent feature of living cells. However, we are still grappling at the fundamental physical principles of cellular movement, especially for complex animal cells. This question underlies disease research, such as cancer metastasis, as well as fundamental biological questions in morphogenesis and organismal development. In this talk, we shall discuss physical origins of forces that drive cell movement. We will entertain the idea that mammalian cells understand fluid mechanics, take advantage of fluid physical cues to guide their movement, and also generate active fluid flows in physiological contexts. We will also discuss the role of active fluid flows in shaping tissues and developmental systems. Recent work is revealing that active fluid flows are controlled by a complex networked control system. This type of networked system is especially difficult to study using traditional biophysical tools. We speculate that AI may offer a new way to examine complex networked systems, provided that precision high dimensional data that link biological function with genetic/molecular components are made available.