通識演講 Colloquium

2026/01/20(Tue) 14:00 -16:00 一樓演講廳 1F, Auditorium

Title

Physics of Multicellular Systems

Speaker

Prof. Masaki Sano (Department of Physics, School of Science, The University of Tokyo)

Abstract

As all living organisms are composed of cells, cellular research is indispensable to understanding life. Consequently, efforts to understand the behavior of cells and populations of cells from a physics perspective are advancing. When addressing mechanical aspects such as cell motility and forces, it has become clear that the behavior of cell populations shows greater agreement between theory and experiment than that of single cells. This involves physical principles such as symmetry and the dominance of slow variables. This lecture addresses two problems concerning cells. One is the behavior of monolayers formed by motile cells, and the other is the problem of growing cell aggregates (organoids). Animals form their morphology during development by creating cavities (lumens) within cell aggregates and folding the resulting monolayers inward. Therefore, understanding the dynamics of monolayers and cavity formation within cell aggregates forms the foundation of cell collective research. This lecture introduces two studies: ① Research investigating the role of directional order and topological defects in cell sheets, deriving a continuum model from individual cell movements and interactions, and comparing it with experiments. ② Research examining the mechanism by which a central lumen forms in organoids growing from a few cells, while the monolayer remains stable during growth, through a comparison of a model and experiments

 Video（YouTube）

Language

演講語言 (Language): in English

Hosted by

平岩徹也 副研究員
Hiraiwa, Tetsuya / Associate Research Fellow