Title: Active Mechanochemical Patterns in Morphogenesis

Speaker: Prof. Vijay Krishnamurthy, ICTS Bengaluru

Abstract: Development of organisms starting from their zygotic state involves a tight integration between biochemical signalling interactions and the mechanical forces that eventually shape the resulting embryo. Mechanical forces in cells and tissues are typically generated by ATP consuming activity of molecular motors. We will develop a general theoretical framework for the self-organizing nature of active cellular cytoskeleton and show that it leads to the emergence of active mechanochemical patterns. We will then discuss our recent work on cell polarity and show that this general framework can quantitatively recapitulate experimental data. If time permits, we will end with a discussion of our ongoing work on coupling these patterns to curved deformable surfaces.