Institut de Mathématiques de Toulouse (Pierre Degond, Fanny Delebecque)
Institut de Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse (Franck Plouraboué, Olivier Praud)
Institut des Techniques Avancées du Vivant (Jacques Rouquette)
Funding: Région Midi-Pyrénées
Period: 2013-2016
Molecular biology and genomics have yielded tremendous progress in the understanding of living systems. Still, the reconstruction of the entire operation of a whole organ from the molecular or genomics picture is far too complex in the current state-of-the-art. The project develops an alternate, heuristic-based approach which relies on mathematical and mechanical models. We plan to apply this approach to study the maintenance of tissue integrity and its regeneration after an injury in adult subjects. We postulate that a tissue corresponds to an ecosystem ruled by three major determinants. This system converges towards a stable equilibrium capable of adaptation to the context (such as an injury). These key determinants are 1) the dialogue between stromal or mesenchymal stem cells on the one hand and differentiated cells on the other hand, 2) the vascularization and innervation which produce gradients of signaling and / or niches, and 3) the extra-cellular matrix which generates mechanical constraints and allows the anchoring and/or the migration of the cells. The adipose tissue will be used as a model tissue because it simultaneously presents a physiopathological interest (related to obesity) and a therapeutical interest (for cell therapy). We will permanently confront the experimental data acquired on this tissue in both physiological and pathological condition. This trans-disciplinary project will provide the proof of concept of the present hypothesis.
Coming soon