Events in Physics
Stochastic multi-scale modelling: Filopodia and intra-cellular Calcium
Speaker: Ulrich Dobramysl (Mathematical Institute, Oxford )
Ulrich will present his work on stochastic multi-scale models for diffusion and their applications in biological systems. In the first section of his talk, he will focus on filopodia, cytoplasmic projections that are important to environmental sensing and chemotaxis, cell motility, establishment of mechanical cell connections during wound healing, neural growth, etc. He will discuss the role of stochastic vs deterministic models for diffusion and the influence of dimensionality on the growth and lifetime for filopodia in these models. In the second part of his talk, he will discuss intra-cellular calcium ion dynamics. The controlled release of calcium into the cytoplasm via IP_3 receptor channels is an important component of signaling pathways in many cell types. They employ a multi-scale on-lattice and Brownian dynamics algorithm coupled with a stochastic channel gating model to simulate calcium puffs.