Conference in English, co-organized by Prof. Thomas Lecuit, Chair of Dynamics of Living Systems, and Prof. Jean-François Joanny, Chair of Soft Matter and Biophysics.
Most cells, from their distant origins nearly 3.5 billion years ago in the oceans, to human metastatic cells are motile, singly or in cohorts. What is the origin of cell movement, such as swimming in water and crawling in viscoelastic substrates? What chemical and mechanical signals from the environment are decoded by cells to direct their trajectories? This year's symposium will examine the processes that govern cell movement, considering the motility of single cells, as well as collective aspects as manifested in swarms of bacteria, and eukaryotic cells during animal development, regeneration and cancer. The purely physical and biological aspects of cell motility will be presented in an interdisciplinary spirit by speakers from both communities. The systems of study presented by the speakers will be diverse and will attempt to delineate general principles by comparing strategies in prokaryotes and eukaryotes.
Most cells, from their distant origins nearly 3.5 billion years ago in the oceans to human metastatic cells, are motile, either singly or in cohorts. What is the origin of cellular movement, such as swimming and crawling in viscoelastic media? What chemical and mechanical signals from the environment are decoded by cells to orient their trajectories? This year's symposium will look at the processes that govern cell movement, considering the motility of single cells, as well as collective aspects as manifested in ensembles of bacteria, and eukaryotic cells during animal development, regeneration processes and cancer. The purely physical and biological aspects of cell motility will be presented in an interdisciplinary spirit by speakers from both communities. The study systems presented by the speakers will be diverse, and will attempt to highlight general principles by comparing strategies implemented in prokaryotes and eukaryotes.