BME Seminar by Prof. Jeff Fredberg

Geometric constraints during epithelial jamming

As an injury heals, an embryo develops or a carcinoma spreads, epithelial cells systematically change their shape. But where do cell shape and its variability come from? Here I will show that cell shape and shape variability are mutually constrained through a relationship that is purely geometrical. Across many epithelial systems, shape variability collapses to a family of distributions that is common to all. Although molecular events are needed for any complete theory of cell shape and cell packing, observations point to the hypothesis that jamming behavior at larger scales of organization sets overriding geometric constraints.