November lecture: Matthias Merkel

[Leo Zeitler]

Tune in THIS THURSDAY for Matthias Merkel's November lecture

Oriented flows in multi-cellular systems
November 20, 5-6pm CET.

Zoom link: https://umontpellier-fr.zoom.us/j/91362963455

Abstract

A key morphogenetic process during animal development is convergent extension (CE). Tissues undergoing CE can be described as oriented active materials. However, active matter physics predicts that such materials are inherently unstable, raising the question of how CE can be robust during development. During his talk, Matthias will show that the presence of a signaling gradient can stabilize CE, but only if it acts to actively extend the tissue along the gradient direction. Conversely, tissues are unstable if they tend to actively contract along the gradient direction. Intriguingly, developing tissues seem to exclusively use the gradient-extensile and not the unstable gradient-contractile coupling. This suggests that the active matter instability acts as an evolutionary selection criterion. Matthias will further discuss oriented flows in the context of body axis formation. His team has demonstrated that the formation of the primary, head-to-tail, axis can be promoted by large-scale tissue flows. He shows that advection of cells with tissue flows contribute substantially to the overall polarization, and that these flows are driven by effective interface and surface tension differences.

Further information

Matthias Merkel is group leader at Aix-Marseille Université on Self-organization and collective effects in living systems, in particular tissues during animal development. Check out his webpage http://www.merkellab.net

[Leo Zeitler]

TGIT (Thank God it's Thursday), so tune in TODAY for Matthias Merkel's November lecture

Oriented flows in multi-cellular systems
November 20, 5-6pm CET.

Zoom link: https://umontpellier-fr.zoom.us/j/91362963455

[Leo Zeitler]

If you have missed Matthias' lecture, you can watch it now online! We'll be off in December, but you can watch the entire backlog of recorded lectures so far. Share and subscribe!