Daniel Lee

2018
Chemistry
Description: 
Breast cancer cell lines generally form colonies with one of four distinct morphologies: round, mass, grape-like, and stellate. Recent studies have indicated that there is a correlation between the morphology and the invasiveness of the tumor cells. Although it is known that there are physical, chemical, and genetic factors that influence cell morphology, how the specific factors affect the overall morphology is poorly understood. We use simulation of the two-dimensional Cellular Potts model to determine the minimum physical factors needed to create the four major breast cancer cell shapes. Cellular Potts model is a lattice-based modeling in which each pixel can be part of a cell or part of the environment. It is designed to approach a shape that is the most stable (has the least energy) for each given parameters. The Hamiltonian equation, which calculates the total energy, currently considers contact between cell and environment, contact between cells, deviation from optimal volume, and deviation from optimal perimeter. The model will also eventually consider the interaction with collagen to study cell morphologies. By optimizing the parameters, the research aims at producing the morphologies, thus determining which parameters are physically and physiologically relevant
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