Applied Maths Seminar: Landman -- Simulating a developmental cell invasion process: Macroscopic and microscopic approaches

During the development of the gastrointestinal nervous system, neural crest cells must
first migrate into and colonise the entire gut from stomach to anal end.  These cells
form the enteric nervous system, which gives rise to normal gut function and peristaltic
contraction.  Failure of the neural crest cells to invade the whole gut results in a
lack of neurons in a length of the terminal intestine.  This is a potentially fatal
condition.  

We are developing mathematical models of neural crest colonisation.  We are using
continuum population-level and agent-based cell-level modelling approaches to replicate
and connect the current population-level and cell-level experimental data.  These models
are being used to generate experimentally testable predictions.