Toward a Two-Scale Model for Morphogenesis: How Cellular Processes Influence Tissue Deformations

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

We propose a two-scale model to resolve essential features of developmental tissue deformations. The model couples individual cellular behavior to the mechanics at tissue scale. This is realized by a multiphase-field model addressing the motility, deformability and interaction of cells on an evolving surface. The surface evolution is due to bending elasticity, with bending properties influenced by the topology of the cellular network, which forms the surface. We discuss and motivate model assumptions, propose a numerical scheme, which essentially scales with the number of cells, and explore computationally the effect of the two-scale coupling on the global shape evolution. The approach provides a step toward more quantitative modeling of morphogenetic processes.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number15
JournalJournal of nonlinear science
Volume36
Issue number1
Early online date28 Dec 2025
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 28 Dec 2025
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-4525-9185/work/202352441

Keywords

Keywords

  • Collective motion, Multiphase-field model, Shape evolution