Mathematikgebäude, Seminarraum M1011 (10. Etage)

Tumor cell invasion is an essential stage in the development of cancer. Tumor cells migrate through the surrounding tissue (normal cells, extracellular matrix, interstitial fluid) towards blood or lymph vessels which they penetrate and thus access the blood flow. They are carried by blood circulation to distant locations where they extravasate and develop new tumours, a phenomenon known as metastasis. The invasive spread of cancer cells is highly complex, as it is influenced by various dynamics ranging from the subcellular level (microscale) through the mesoscopic level of individual cells and up to the macroscale of a cell population, the latter involving processes like diffusion, chemotaxis or haptotaxis, separately or in a conjugate way.
The mathematical modeling of these features leads to multiscale settings interconnecting two or all three of these scales and allowing to assess the effects of subcellular events on the behavior of an entire cell population.We present two classes of multiscale models, one in a general framework involving the microscopic and macroscopic levels, and the other set up for characterizing glioma invasion in white brain matter and relying on kinetic transport equations on the mesoscale and ODEs on the microscopic, subcellular scale.

Prof. Dr. Christina Surulescu

TU Kaiserslautern