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Project

3

Soft Matter

Two Cells, One Box…now with Physics

Cells are not just passive building blocks, they actively sense their environment and generate forces that shape how tissues form and function. Remarkably, when confined to small geometries, even just two cells can exhibit coordinated motion such as rotation and dynamic rearrangement of their shared interface. This project will explore how such collective motion can emerge from simple mechanical interactions by building a minimal computational model. The main task will be to simulate pairs of cells in different confinement geometries to investigate how mechanical factors like cell stiffness, adhesion, and internal stresses combine to produce organized motion. The aim is to uncover the fundamental physical principles that link confinement geometry to collective cell dynamics, using a model that is simple enough to understand, yet rich enough to reveal unexpected behavior.

Supervisor(s):

Diogo Pinto

Positions:

1

Requirements:

None

Supported by

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© 2026 by CFTC, UIDB/00618/2020

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