This two-day meeting will focus on Quantitative Cell and Developmental Biology. We will bring expertise from across scales, combining people working on subcellular cell biology through to tissue scale processes. We will also have theoretical ideas at the heart of the meeting.

The meeting has two primary objectives:

· Opportunity in a constructive environment to discuss your latest work and gain positive feedback.

· Develop potential collaborative grant applications. This also includes providing support and advice to ECRs in fellowship applications.

Background and Overview

The last 20 years have seen a revolution in quantitative approaches within biology. From single cell -omics methods to new advances in live imaging, we can now assay biological systems with unprecedented precision. Alongside such data, we have seen a resurgence of interest in physics, engineering, mathematics, and computer science in biology problems.

Despite this enthusiasm, it remains challenging to effectively bring together different disciplines to better comprehend how cells and tissues are shaped and perform specific functions. This also includes understanding how biology is “robust” – i.e., despite the presence of numerous sources of potential error, biological systems typically function effectively and consistently.

Here, we look to bring together researchers from two leading interdisciplinary institutions – Warwick and Cambridge – to discuss a range of topics across cell and tissue biology. The meeting is deliberately broad, as we want to encourage cross-fertilisation of ideas and not be restricted by specific modes of thinking or biological areas. For example, University of Warwick has a strong record in encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration between departments, and Cambridge leads a highly successful Physics of Life initiative, which has seen excellent interdisciplinary, collaborative work emerge.

By bringing researchers from these centres of excellence together for an intensive two-day meeting, we hope to develop new collaborations and research directions to deepen our understanding of complex biological systems.

Given the institutional expertise, we focus the meeting on the following themes, aiming to address broader ideas and paradigms, rather than focusing on any one specific model organism or discipline ideas:

1. Multiscale biological phenomena

2. Quantitative approaches for understanding biology

3. Mechanical interactions and their role in shaping cells and tissues

4. Application of quantitative biology approaches to disease

Processes from the molecular through to tissue scale are critical in ensuring robust biological systems; e.g., tissue morphogenesis. This meeting will tackle problems across different scales, while importantly providing ample time for questions and interactions between researchers across different disciplines. Additionally, this meeting will highlight the importance of integrating modelling; biophysical and mathematical modelling provides a powerful framework for understanding how processes occurring across multiple scales can impact on processes such as morphogenesis.

Registration now closed