CRM Seminar - Professor Osvaldo Chara

Professor Osvaldo Chara, Assistant Professor on Physics of Tissues at the University of Nottingham

Talk Title: From cell to tissues and back: a tale of tissue mechanics and modelling

Abstract: How cell-cycle dynamics give rise to tissue-scale growth remains a fundamental problem in biology. In the first part of the seminar I will present a minimal theoretical framework that predicts tissue expansion directly from cell-cycle length across different geometries, including branched tissues, spatially heterogeneous proliferation, variable cell size or extracellular space, and quiescent cells. We will see that the theory is in quantitative agreement with computational simulations and with recent experimental data on stem cells in culture. In the second part of the seminar I will talk about how modelling can help us study clonal expansion of the regenerating epicardium in salamanders. 

Bio: Osvaldo Chara is a mathematical biologist interested in one fundamental question: how do the mechanics at cell level gives rise to the growth, shape and function of living tissues? His group at the University of Nottingham in the UK and UADE University in Argentina combines mathematical and computational modelling with image analysis and experimental data from collaborators to uncover the principles underlying tissue morphogenesis during development and regeneration. Their research spans a range of organisms, including Hydra, axolotls, newts, zebrafish, Drosophila and mice. The broader goal of the group is to understand how complex biological structures emerge from collective cellular behaviour and mechanical constraints.