#5 · Systems biology

Mechanistic models link cell-scale rules to invasion, containment and therapy outcomes

The common thread is explicit mechanistic modeling, in which defined rules at the cell or population level are used to generate or fit system-scale behavior in tumor and tissue contexts. A Bayesian-fitted ODE coagulation-fragmentation-proliferation model is applied to melanoma time-lapse data to compare proliferative and invasive cluster behaviour. A go-or-grow model with ECM-dependent phenotypic switching yields an analytic traveling wave speed that is independent of matrix properties. A spatial simulation with biologically scaled parameters frames tumor containment as an anti-percolation process. A multi-patch ODE model of transgenic oncolytic virotherapy uses spectral reduction to identify R0 regimes and drug-driven Hopf oscillations. A unified adhesion-based model links cell invasion and pattern formation in growing tissues. What is new is the combination of data fitting with analytic and spectral reductions that make system-level predictions explicit.