Date and Time: 10/17/2023, 13:00--14:00

Location: https://gsumeetings.webex.com/meet/ngaby1

Applied and Computational Math Seminar: From Shape to Dynamics in Single and Collective Cell Migration

Speaker: Yi Jiang, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Georgia State University

Title: From Shape to Dynamics in Single and Collective Cell Migration

Abstract: Single and collective cell migration are fundamental processes critical for physiological phenomena ranging from embryonic development and immune response to wound healing and cancer invasion and metastasis. Identical cells in the same environment show diverse shape and behavior. What relationship, if any, exists between cell shape and migration behavior? Is it possible to distinguish a cell’s dynamics from a snapshot image? We show a data-driven approach to understanding and modeling single cell migration. Through analyzing many single cell migration images, we found that the cell shape variation space has only six dimensions, and migration behavior can be determined by the coordinates of an image in this 6-dimensional shape space. We further showed that persistent cell migration is characterized by spatiotemporally coordinated protrusion and contraction, and a distribution signature in the shape-space. I will also discuss work in progress to extend this approach to the shape and dynamics of collective cancer invasion.

Speaker's biography: Yi Jiang received her BS in Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China and her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Notre Dame. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Theoretical Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory, she stayed on as a research scientist. In 2011 she moved to Georgia State University, where she is currently Frady Whipple Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. She's also a member of the Cancer Cell Biology Group at the Emory Winship Cancer Institute and an affiliate member of the Emory Eye Center. Her research interests reside between physics, math, biology, and biomedicine, in recent years focusing on the modeling of cancer progression, eye diseases, liver fibrosis, cell migration, and cell-ECM interactions.

Host: Nathan Gaby (ngaby1@gsu.edu)