Emergent modes of collective cell organization in an Active Finite Voronoi model

Abstract

We introduce an active version of the recently proposed finite Voronoi model of epithelial tissue. The resultant Active Finite Voronoi (AFV) model enables the study of both confluent and non-confluent geometries and transitions between them, in the presence of active cells. Our results indicate a rich phase diagram which unifies the study of the route to collective motility via unjamming with the study of motility enabled by EMT, the epithelial-mesenchymal transition. This approach should prove useful for issues arising in both developmental biology systems and during cancer metastasis.