A: Structure formation in tissues as well as mal-functions on the multi-cellular level are inherently of multi-scale nature. Modifications on the molecular level by intrinsic or extrinsic factors affect the architecture and function on the multi-cellular tissue level. Much of the current research so far focuses on the analysis of intracellular pathways, genetic and metabolic regulation on the intracellular scale and on continuum equations for local densities of cells to capture multi-cellular objects on large spatial scalesbut only recently increasing effort is made on the interface between both: individual cell based models (IBMs) which permit to include the molecular information on one hand and to extrapolate to the multi-cellular tissue level on the other hand. In order to bridge the existing gap we have studied different approaches:
- intracellular regulation networks
- lattice-free IBMs
- cellular automaton (CA) models
- continuum models
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B: Besides the methodical aspects we focus on a number of
applications:
- unstructured cell populations growing in monolayer
- multicellular spheroids
- biotechnological applications such as the optimization of cell yield of MDCK-cells
for vaccine production
- complex tissue architectures in regenerative tissues such as the regeneration of
liver lobules after toxic damage
The applications are guided by quantitative comparisons to experimental data either from published knowledge or generated by experimental partners.
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