Stephanie Abo

Cells move, divide and die at rates that change through the cell cycle. Cells also differ in how long they take to complete a division cycle. These differences can arise from intrinsic fluctuations, such as in gene transcription, or from extrinsic factors, such as crowding, which can slow both cell movement and cell-cycle progression. Yet how these individual cell behaviours combine to shape collective invasion remains unclear. In this talk, I will present structured reaction–diffusion equations that describe how cell-cycle progression is coupled to cell movement and death, while accounting for variability in division times. I will discuss when, and to what extent, this variability affects the speed at which a cell population invades. Finally, I will relate these results to experimental measurements and discuss what they can tell us about cell populations that appear identical at the population level.