Welcome to the q-bio Summer School and Conference!

Computational Modeling of Directed Motion in Self-Driven Systems such as Bacteria and Cells

From Q-bio

I will present recent results and discuss future directions for numerical simulations of swimming bacteria and cells in the presence of funnel geometries. We show that in modeling the bacteria, only a few simple assumptions, such as run and tumble dynamics combined with a rule for the motion of bacteria along a wall, are sufficient to produce a rectification or directed motion of the bacteria. Our simulation results are in excellent agreement with experiments and open the possibilities for a wealth of new types of devices such as cell sorting, dynamical self-assembly, rotating microscopic gears, and enhanced diffusion of asymmetric objects immersed in bacterial baths. We also discuss how more complex cellular motion could be modeled and how different methods of cell locomotion could lead to cells moving in different directions on asymmetric substrates.