Cell motility and the cytoskeleton: investigating the roles of actin dynamics and signaling pathways in eukaryotic cell motion

Leah Edelstein-Keshet, University of British Columbia

I present an overview of models of increasing levels of detail for the actin-based motility of eukaryotic cell, starting in 1D, with a minimal model, and continuing in 2D, to include interactions with proteins and lipids known to be important in regulating the cytoskeleton (Rho GTPases and phosphoinositides). I will show how modeling can help us to gain insight into the polarization, shape changes, and motility of cells such as neutrophils and keratocytes, and how we can get a better understanding of signaling pathways using such models.

This work has been in collaboration with Adriana Dawes, Alexandra Jilkine, AFM (Stan) Maree, and Veronica Grieneisen