The Cellular Potts Model and Biophysical Properties of Cells, Tissues and Morphogenesis

In this chapter we examine the properties of the Cellular Potts Model (CPM) formalism which make it preeminently suitable for modelling biological cells. The most outstanding feature in which CPM differs from other modelling formalisms, is that a cell is modelled as a deformable object, and takes its shape from a combination of internal and external forces which act upon it. The energy minimisation based CPM formalism enables us to integrate these forces acting at different scales. We map the parameters of the basic CPM formalism to physical and biological properties of cells. We show through those mappings that the modelling formalism is a powerful tool for investigating a large range of biological questions, from those concerning biophysical properties of single cells, cell motion, tissue level properties, all the way up to understanding the full morphogenesis and life-cycle of an organism.

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