Björn Birnir: The Soliton in Angiogenesis
Time: Tue 2018-10-30 14.00 - 14.45
Location: Seminar Hall Kuskvillan, Institut Mittag-Leffler
Participating: Björn Birnir, University of California, Santa Barbara
We will discuss cellular and kinetic model for angiogenesis, the growth of veins transporting the blood flow. Numerical simulations of this model lead to a surprising discovery of a KdV soliton, describing the tips of veins as they grow through the body. This means that we have solitons propagating through us. A soliton is a wave that can propagate for a long time, without much changing its form.
The resulting analysis gave a simple model describing the soliton and its propagation and a further dynamical systems analysis points to a control theory of the soliton that may be used to either help or hinder the growth of the veins.
This has important applications in embryo development, especially for the development of premature babies in their first weeks of life, and to tumor growth and spread, that is enabled by veins growing towards the tumor.
Reference: L. L. Bonilla, M. Carretero, F. Terragni, B. Birnir. Soliton driven angiogenesis. Scientific Reports, 2016; 6: 31296 DOI: 10.1038/srep31296