Understanding how heterogeneous cells coordinate force-transduction during collective cell migration and morphogenesis

Fish embryos build their sensory organs with cells that vary fivefold in size, yet these mismatched cells still manage to migrate together as a coordinated group. This project addresses a fundamental gap in developmental biology: how do cells of different sizes within a moving collective sense and respond to the same physical forces? Current models assume cells experience uniform mechanical stimuli, but preliminary data show that the migrating lateral line in zebrafish contains cells with dramatically different volumes. Without a scaling mechanism, larger cells would feel weaker forces than smaller ones, potentially disrupting the precise timing and positioning required for organ formation. The researcher will combine machine-learning image analysis with biophysical measurements to track how forces travel through the nucleus, cell membrane, and cytoskeleton in living embryos. By correlating cell size with material properties and migration behaviour, they aim to identify molecular components that act as size sensors, allowing the collective to move reliably despite internal diversity. This is fundamental science with no immediate practical application. However, understanding how heterogeneous cell populations coordinate movement could eventually inform tissue engineering—where lab-grown organs must assemble from mixed cell types—or reveal why collective migration fails in developmental disorders and metastatic cancer.