dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaModeling multi-cellular systems using sub-cellular elements
| Authors | T. J. Newman |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | q-bio/0504028 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0504028 |
Abstract
We introduce a model for describing the dynamics of large numbers of interacting cells. The fundamental dynamical variables in the model are sub-cellular elements, which interact with each other through phenomenological intra- and inter-cellular potentials. Advantages of the model include i) adaptive cell-shape dynamics, ii) flexible accommodation of additional intra-cellular biology, and iii) the absence of an underlying grid. We present here a detailed description of the model, and use successive mean-field approximations to connect it to more coarse-grained approaches, such as discrete cell-based algorithms and coupled partial differential equations. We also discuss efficient algorithms for encoding the model, and give an example of a simulation of an epithelial sheet. Given the biological flexibility of the model, we propose that it can be used effectively for modeling a range of multi-cellular processes, such as tumor dynamics and embryogenesis.
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"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:01:32.180000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:01:32.180000Z",
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"abstract": "We introduce a model for describing the dynamics of large numbers of\ninteracting cells. The fundamental dynamical variables in the model are\nsub-cellular elements, which interact with each other through phenomenological\nintra- and inter-cellular potentials. Advantages of the model include i)\nadaptive cell-shape dynamics, ii) flexible accommodation of additional\nintra-cellular biology, and iii) the absence of an underlying grid. We present\nhere a detailed description of the model, and use successive mean-field\napproximations to connect it to more coarse-grained approaches, such as\ndiscrete cell-based algorithms and coupled partial differential equations. We\nalso discuss efficient algorithms for encoding the model, and give an example\nof a simulation of an epithelial sheet. Given the biological flexibility of the\nmodel, we propose that it can be used effectively for modeling a range of\nmulti-cellular processes, such as tumor dynamics and embryogenesis.",
"arxiv_id": "q-bio/0504028",
"authors": [
"T. J. Newman"
],
"categories": [
"q-bio.QM"
],
"title": "Modeling multi-cellular systems using sub-cellular elements",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0504028"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "067d0d43-9345-4a26-9757-93fe47dbb964",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
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