Ruprecht Karls Universität Heidelberg

IWH-Symposium on Collective Cell Migration July 14 and 15 2015

Collective behaviour occurs over a wide range of systems, many of which we encoutner in daily life. Common examples are decision-making in a group of people (like a selection committee or a study section), hunting or traveling by a group of animals (like a school of fish or a flock of birds) or swarm intelligence encoded in a group of robots. In physics, collective behaviour is well known as the driving force for phase transitions, when an ensembles of atoms or molecules suddenly changes its character because a parameter such as temperature is changed. Collective behaviour also occurs on an intermediate scale, for examples when cells cooperate in a multicellular system. An example of particular importance is cell migration in a group, which occurs during development, wound healing or cancer metastasis. Collective cell migration implies both strong cell-cell contacts (for interaction) and cell-matrix contacts (for migration). For example, in cell monolayers the cell typically interact laterally through cell-cell contacts and basally with the extracellular matrix.

The aim of this symposium is to bring together an interdisciplinary group of scientists working at the interface between physics and biology to understand collective cell migration in a quantitative manner. It will take place at the Internationales Wissenschaftsforum Heidelberg (IWH), a beautiful villa in the old city of Heidelberg that is a perfect location for intense and interdisciplinary discussions in a relatively small group (60-70 participants). In addition to the 15 invited speakers (list see below), contributed talks will be selected from the submitted abstracts and posters will be on display during the whole meeting.

The meeting will be kicked off on July 13 with an evening reception. Talks will be scheduled for two full days on July 14 and 15, including lunch and dinner on site (included in registration fee). The meeting will close with a farewell dinner on July 15. Oversee participants might want to leave on July 16 (the closest airport is Frankfurt, which can easily be reached by train or shuttle bus).

The official deadline was June 1 and the registration fee is 250 EUR (including meals). Everyone who has registered should have received a confirmation of participation. Accommodation is not provided (except for invited speakers) but we have blocked some rooms in closeby hotels with a reasonable rate so that participants can book accommodation when participation has been confirmed after the deadline. The hotels in this block are the Bayrischer Hof in the Old City, the guest house Bergheimer Strasse and the Excellence Hotel in Rohrbacher Strasse.

Confirmed speakers

Details

Posters

Our sponsors

Organizers at Heidelberg University


Last modified July 13 by USS.
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