Event Details

MARS (Mathematics for AI in Real-world Systems) seminar series Speaker: Erik Blom (Uppsala) Title: The DLCM framework: simulating heterogeneous cell populations on a fixed lattice

Abstract: Modeling discrete multicellular systems offers a range of approaches, from cellular Potts models to vertex models to center-based frameworks that explicitly capture cell-cell forces and interactions. Each option comes with its own trade-offs between computational cost, model detail, and biological interpretability.

To this space, we introduce the Discrete Laplacian Cell Mechanics (DLCM) framework, developed for stochastic simulations of heterogeneous cell populations on a fixed grid and designed for an even balance between these three said aspects. Cell-cell communication cooperates with the population-level dynamics (e.g., migration or proliferation) through coupled Markov chains that define an event-based behaviour in continuous time. The cell population is embedded in continuous micro-environment fields, representing nutrients, mechanical pressure and diffusive chemical signals, all modeled by stationary reaction-diffusion equations.

We will look at the framework capabilities in benchmark cases—including cell sorting, patterning through cell signalling, chemotaxis, tumor growth, and wound healing—and discuss future directions and improvements to its efficiency and expressiveness.