In dense tissues, cells undergo deformation in response to mechanical interactions with their neighboring cells, and this deformability plays a crucial role in determining tissue-scale mechanical properties. Simulations and theoretical studies are indispensable for understanding such collective behaviors. However, due to computational limitations, large-scale simulations of deformable cells have generally been restricted to simple convex polygonal shapes.

In this talk, I will present a simulation framework that enables efficient modeling of large populations of freely deformable cells[1], offering significantly improved computational performance over existing methods. Using this framework, we analyze various biological phenomena, including collective dynamics in densely packed cell populations and cell assembly processes guided by chemotactic cues.

References: [1] Saito & Ishihara (2024). Sci. Adv. 10(19), eadi8433.