Travelling Waves in Gene Expression: A Mathematical Model of Cell-State Dynamics in Melanoma
by Charlotte Taylor Barca; Rotem Leshem; Vishaka Gopalan; Sarah Woolner; Kerrie L Marie; Gareth Wyn Jones; Oliver E Jensen
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Melanoma is a form of skin cancer, made particularly aggressive by the ability of certain cells (melanocytes) to switch between states that confer different phenotypes. This behaviour can lead to therapy resistance and evasion of the body’s immune response. Understanding the mechanisms leading to cell-state transitions, and the spatial patterns of cell states in a tumour, is essential to the development and improvement of therapies or predictive biomarkers. We use a low-order mathematical model of a fundamental gene regulatory network in a population of melanoma cells to identify possible states, and the conditions under which the whole cell population can be driven into a single state.
Image Description: A snapshot of the cell monolayer simulation and the melanoma gene regulatory network.
