L3

Mathematical modelling can support decontamination processes in a variety of ways.  In this talk, we focus on the contamination step: understanding how much of a chemical spill has seeped into the Earth or a building material, and how far it has travelled, are essential for making good decisions about how to clean it up.  

We consider an infiltration problem in which a chemical is poured on an initially unsaturated porous medium, and seeps into it via capillary action. Capillarity-driven flow through partially-saturated porous media is often modelled using Richards’ equation, which is a simplification of the Buckingham-Darcy equation in the limit where the infiltrating phase is much more viscous than the receding phase.  In this talk, I will explore the limitations of Richards equation, and discuss some scenarios in which predictions for small-but-finite viscosity ratios are very different to the Richards simplification.

Optimal transport theory is a natural way to define both a distance and a geometry on the space of probability measures. In settings like graphical causal models (also called Bayes networks or belief networks), the space of probability measures is enriched by an information structure modeled by a directed graph. This talk introduces a variant of optimal transport including such a graphical information structure. The goal is to provide a concept of optimal transport whose topological and geometric properties are well suited for structural causal models. In this regard, we show that the resulting concept of Wasserstein distance can be used to control the difference between average treatment effects under different distributions, and is geometrically suitable to interpolate between different structural causal models.

In this talk we study wave propagation in random media using multiscale analysis.
We show that the wavefield can be described by a stochastic partial differential equation.
We can then address the following physical conjecture: for large propagation distances, the wavefield has Gaussian statistics, mean zero, and second-order moments determined by radiative transfer theory.
The results for the first two moments can be proved under general circumstances.
The Gaussian conjecture for the statistical distribution of the wavefield can be proved in some propagation regimes, but it turns out to be wrong in other regimes.

In this presentation, we will review how the field of Mechanics of Materials is generally framed and see how it can benefit from and be of benefit to the current progress in AI. We will approach this problematic in the particular context of Brain mechanics with an application to traumatic brain injury in police investigations. Finally we will briefly show how our group is currently applying the same methodology to a range of engineering challenges.

Morphogen protein gradients play an essential role in the spatial regulation of patterning during embryonic development.  The most commonly accepted mechanism of protein gradient formation involves the diffusion and degradation of morphogens from a localized source. Recently, an alternative mechanism has been proposed, which is based on cell-to-cell transport via thin, actin-rich cellular extensions known as cytonemes. It has been hypothesized that cytonemes find their targets via a random search process based on alternating periods of retraction and growth, perhaps mediated by some chemoattractant. This is an actin-based analog of the search-and-capture model of microtubules of the mitotic spindle searching for cytochrome binding sites (kinetochores) prior to separation of cytochrome pairs. In this talk, we introduce a search-and-capture model of cytoneme-based morphogenesis, in which nucleating cytonemes from a source cell dynamically grow and shrink until making contact with a target cell and delivering a burst of morphogen. We model the latter as a one-dimensional search process with stochastic resetting, finite returns times and refractory periods. We use a renewal method to calculate the splitting probabilities and conditional mean first passage times (MFPTs) for the cytoneme to be captured by a given target cell. We show how multiple rounds of search-and-capture, morphogen delivery, cytoneme retraction and nucleation events lead to the formation of a morphogen gradient. We proceed by formulating the morphogen bursting model as a queuing process, analogous to the study of translational bursting in gene networks. We end by briefly discussing current work on a model of cytoneme-mediated within-host viral spread.

In this talk I will discuss how phenotypic heterogeneity affects emergent pattern formation in living active matter with chemical communication between cells. In doing so, I will explore how the emergent dynamics of multicellular communities are qualitatively different in comparison to the dynamics of isolated or non-interacting cells. I will focus on two specific projects. First, I will show how genetic regulation of chemical communication affects motility-induced phase separation in cell populations. Second, I will demonstrate how chemotaxis along self-generated signal gradients affects cell populations undergoing 3D morphogenesis.

The role of tissue stiffness in controlling cell behaviours ranging from proliferation to signalling and activation is by now well accepted. A key focus of experimental studies into mechanotransduction are focal adhesions, localised patches of strong adhesion, where cell signalling has been established to occur. However, these adhesion sites themselves alter the mechanical equilibrium of the system determining the force balance and work done. To explore this I have developed an active matter continuum description of cellular contractility and will discuss recent results on the specific role of spatial positioning of adhesions in mechanotransduction. I show using energy arguments why the experimentally observed arrangements of focal adhesions develop and the implications this has for stiffness sensing and cellular contractility control. I will also show how adhesions play distinct roles in single cells and tissue layers respectively drawing on recent experimental work with Dr JR Davis (Manchester University) and Dr Nic Tapon (Crick Institute) with applications to epithelial layers and organoids.