Call for abstracts: Growth, adaptation, and differentiation of cells and tissues (WCCM 2012)

 Call for Abstracts (Deadline: November 30, 2011)

 As a part of WCCM 2012 (10th World Congress on Computational Mechanics)

 Submit Your Abstract (Choose mini-symposium MS-149)

Growth, adaptation, and differentiation of cells and tissues are interrelated phenomena that are regulated partly by the mechanical interaction of cells and tissues with their environment and partly by the biological stimuli they receive. The importance of understanding the relationship between mechanical stimuli and the time evolution of cells and tissues has been long known. This relationship cannot be well understood without mechanobiological models that relate the mechanics and biology of cells and tissues. During the last three decades, many researchers have developed mechanobiological models to study such phenomena as morphogenesis, bone fracture healing, bone and muscle remodeling, growth of bone and cartilaginous tissue, cytoskeletal remodeling, and differentiation of cells and tissues. Computational methods are often needed for solving the governing equations of such mechanobiological models. This mini-symposium aims to bring together researchers who apply computational mechanobiology to study the growth, differentiation, and/or differentiation of different types of cells and tissues. The mechanobiological models may concern nano-, micro-, or macro-scale or a combination of these scales in a multi-scale scheme. Contributions may use different computational techniques such as finite element method, boundary element method, molecular dynamics, or any other applicable computational technique. Studies that introduce or use relatively newer approaches such as the models based on the mixtures theory are particularly welcome. The other interesting area is application of the growth, remodeling, and differentiation models for design and optimization of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine procedures (e.g. optimal design of scaffolds).