Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting | Riga 2026

Active and Responsive Soft Matter: From Biological to Engineered Systems

Poster Abstracts

8-POS Board 8 PROLIFERATION-DRIVEN ACTIVE FLOWS INDUCE FLUIDIZATION AND ORDERING IN MULTICELLULAR SYSTEMS Tomohiro Mimura 1 ; Yasuhiro Inoue 1 ; 1 Kyoto university, Microengineering, Kyoto, Japan Collective cell migration in multicellular tissues has often been described using active matter models in which cells are treated as self-propelled particles. In these systems, tissue mechanics depend on cell density, and a transition from fluid-like to solid-like behavior, referred to as the jamming transition, has been reported. This transition has been linked to processes such as wound healing and cancer invasion.In most of these studies, activity is introduced through cell motility, while cell proliferation is not explicitly considered. However, in living tissues, cells continuously divide. Each division event locally increases cell number and generates mechanical perturbations, which can influence collective motion. In this study, we examine a system in which cells divide continuously in a two-dimensional layer. Under these conditions, the tissue does not become arrested at high density. Instead, we observe persistent collective motion with vortex-like structures. As cell density increases, cell mobility also increases. In addition, cell arrangements become more ordered over time. These observations indicate that proliferation can drive collective dynamics in a way that differs from motility-driven systems.

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