Speaker: Prof. Biplab Bose
Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian
Institute of Technology Guwahati
Title: "Collective Behavior of Cells: Learning from Planar
Cell Polarity".
Day and Date: Friday, October 13, 2023
Time: 15.30 hrs.
Venue: Seminar room, room no. 350,
Chemistry Department (second floor)
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Hosted by Prof. Sandip Kar
Abstract Epithelial cells, like those on the wings of a fly, are polarized, with an asymmetric distribution
of molecules and structures inside a cell. In Planar Cell Polarity (PCP), all epithelial cells in a
particular region get collectively polarized and aligned along the proximal-distal axis. PCP is
an example of cellular phase transition through local and global interactions. We use a
lattice-based spin model to capture the essential aspects of this phase transition. In this
model, the alignment of cells leads to clusters of aligned cells, and such clustering exhibits a
percolation transition. We show that percolation transition is crucial to achieve robust
collective alignment of cells even when some cells have aberrations. In this talk, I will discuss
various behaviors of this toy model. I will illustrate that if we remove the bells and whistles,
a 'complicated' biological phenomenon can be equated with a 'simple' physical model that
captures the behaviors of many other phenomena.