Parsing Contact-Inhibition of Motility and Its Role In Multicellular Morphodynamics

Cell motility plays a central role in the formation and reshaping of multicellular structures. In normal epithelial tissues, cell-cell contact constrains cell motility. Mutations that relieve contact-inhibition of motility allow epithelial cells to escape from their primary tissue, altering epithelial tissue morphology and contributing to metastasis. Our lab is developing quantitative approaches to better understand the mechanisms that regulate contact-inhibition of motility and its role in multicellular morphogenesis. In this talk, I will describe how we are applying automated image analysis, micropatterned materials and mathematical modeling to quantify how cell-cell interactions affect motility and how this cellular-scale phenomenon alters multicellular phenotypes, such as cell scatter and aggregation.