Mostly Biomathematics Lunchtime Seminar

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Cell volume control and osmosis-driven cell movement

Speaker: Yoichiro Mori, School of Mathematics, University of Minnesota

Location: Warren Weaver Hall 1314

Date: Tuesday, May 7, 2019, 12:30 p.m.

Synopsis:

Electrolyte and cell volume regulation is essential in physiological systems. Biophysical modeling in this area, however, has been relatively sparse. After a brief introduction to cell volume control and electrophysiology, I will discuss the classical pump-leak model of electrolyte and cell volume control. It will be shown that thermodynamic considerations lead to a new perspective of cell volume control. This classical model will then be generalized to a model with spatial extent (a system of partial differential equations) modeling cell-level electrodiffusive and osmotic phenomena. A simplified version of this model will then be applied to study osmosis-driven cell movement. Osmosis-driven and the conventional actin-driven cell movement will be compared theoretically and computationally in terms of its properties, focusing in particular on energy expenditure.