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Events
Workshop "Biology and Geometry"

MPI für Mathematik in den Naturwissenschaften Leipzig

E1 05 (Leibniz-Saal)

conference

08.04.25 09.04.25

Workshop "Biology and Geometry"

Biology structures live and biological processes take place in 3-dimensional space, and are both enabled and constrained by this geometry. Biological data are represented in high dimensional spaces, with a very different geometry.

Can we combine these two perspectives? To what extent and in which ways can modern geometry help us in understanding biology? What challenges does biology pose for geometry?

Speakers

Philippe Bastiaens

MPI of Molecular Physiology

Helmut Grubmüller

MPI for Multidisciplinary Sciences

Heather Harrington

MPI of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics

Josef Kaes

Leipzig University

Cristian Micheletti

SISSA

Nadya Morozova

IHES

Sayan Mukherjee

ScaDS.AI & MPI MIS

Nadine Peyrieras

Université de Paris/ CNRS

Peter Stadler

Leipzig University

Reidun Twarock

University of York

Anna Wienhard

MPI for Mathematics in the Sciences

Program

09:00 - 09:30	Registration & Welcome Coffee
09:30 - 09:45	Jürgen Jost Introduction to the Institute and the Workshop
09:45 - 10:45	Helmut Grubmüller Biomolecular dynamics and function can only be understood from a high-dimensional perspective
10:45 - 11:00	Coffee Break
11:00 - 12:00	Philippe Bastiaens to be announced
12:00 - 13:00	Lunch Break
13:00 - 13:30	Scientific Discussion
13:30 - 14:30	Reidun Twarock to be announced
14:30 - 14:45	Coffee Break
14:45 - 15:45	Nadine Peyrieras to be announced
15:45 - 16:00	Coffee Break
16:00 - 17:00	Cristian Micheletti to be announced
17:00 - 18:00	Sayan Mukherjee to be announced

09:00 - 09:30	Welcome Coffee
09:30 - 10:00	Josef Kaes The metastatic cascade – Does Oncology need the Physics of Cancer? Despite that pathological genetic changes are the origin of cancer, gene expression only contains 50% of the information to fully understand the disease. 90% of all cancer deaths can be attributed to metastasis. Collective, collaborative processes in the metastatic cascade that are emergent are optimally described by tissue and cell mechanics based on the basic requirement that cancer cells have to squeeze through dense tissues. In solid tumors cancer cells are packed at volume fraction one and have no space to move. The onset of cancer cell motility in primary tumors as a prerequisite of metastasis requires a shape-induced unjamming transition. Collectively elongated cells can pass by each other by performing topological T1-transitions. The interactions of these motile cancer cells with the surrounding fiber bundles of the extracellular matrix (ECM) lead to self-organization. Actively moving streams of cancer cell clusters are embedded in the fibers of the ECM and can be described as active nematic droplets embedded in a passive nematic scaffold. The resulting size distribution and shape of the cancer cell clusters follow specific scaling laws. Elongated cell und nucleus shape (CeNuS) as well as the distribution of topological defects in the ECM are measures of cancer cell activity and can serve as potential prognostic tumor markers in the clinic. First retrospective clinical trials indicate that we can improve diagnosis by more than 25%. These two markers define a new approach in digital histolgy: pathomechanics that connects tumor dynamics and geometry. Next we will use physics-guided neuronal networks to predict the interplay between cell proliferation, motility and confining ECM. Ultimately, this may lead to a novel types of therapy, so called migrastatics therapies that inhibit cancer cell motility.
10:30 - 11:30	Coffee Break
11:00 - 12:00	Nadya Morozova to be announced
12:00 - 13:00	Lunch Break
13:00 - 14:00	Scientific Discussion
14:00 - 15:00	Heather Harrington to be announced
15:00 - 15:15	Coffee Break
15:15 - 16:15	Peter Stadler to be announced
16:15 - 16:30	Coffee Break
16:30 - 17:30	Anna Wienhard to be announced
17:30 - 18:30	Scientific Discussion