Integrated Calendar

Uncertainty is inherent to any situation we encounter. Our individual attitudes towards uncertainty strongly affect our evaluation of different available options and our behavior based on these evaluations. In the talk I will describe a series of studies in which we combine experimental economics and other behavioral methods with functional MRI to study the behavioral and neural characteristics of attitudes towards uncertainty and learning under uncertainty.

Growth of solid tumors or metastasis requires, besides massive biomedical changes, also a spatial remodeling of the tissue. This remodeling, often including displacements of healthy tissue around, requires mechanical work to be done. These mechanics of growth has attracted a lot of attention in recent years, but still remains poorly understood.
We use particle based simulations to study mechanical properties and effects in growing and motile tissues. These simulations have been helpful in understanding, interpreting and designing experiments.
I will present an overview of the simulation technique, and how it contributed to recent developments in three dimensional tissue growth and collective cell migration.
In a recent series of simulations and close experimental collaborations we found important interfacial and surface effects that lead to novel phenomena. For example, the tissue divides favorably at a free surface, even without any nutrient effects. This leads to the possibility and stability of a negative homeostatic pressure. In turn, a negative homeostatic pressure leads to naturally to finite steady states and tensile states.

References:
[1] M.Basan et al, PNAS 110: 2452 (2013)
[2] F. Montel et al, N. J. Phys. 14: 055008 (2012)
[3] F. Montel et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107: 188102, (2011)
[4] M. Basan et al, Phys. Biol. 8: 026014, (2011)
[5] J. Ranft et al, PNAS 107: 20863, (2010)