A Lock Free Approach To Parallelize The Cellular Potts Model: Application To Ductal Carcinoma In Situ

Simulating 3D Cell Shape with the Cellular Potts Model

Computer simulations have become a widely used method for the field of mechanobiology. An important question is whether one can predict the shape and forces of cells as a function of the extracellular environment. Different types of models have been described before to simulate cell and tissue shapes in structured environments. In this chapter, we give a brief overview of commonly used models and then describe the Cellular Potts Model, a lattice-based modelling framework, in more detail. We provide a hands-on guide on how to build a model that simulates the shape of a single cell on a micropattern in three dimensions in different open source software packages using the Cellular Potts framework. A simulation is set up with an initial configuration of generalized cells that change shape and position due to an energy function that incorporates cellular volume and surface area constraints as well as interaction energies between the generalized cells.

Cells in Silico - introducing a high-performance framework for large-scale tissue modeling

BACKGROUND

Discoveries in cellular dynamics and tissue development constantly reshape our understanding of fundamental biological processes such as embryogenesis, wound-healing, and tumorigenesis. High-quality microscopy data and ever-improving understanding of single-cell effects rapidly accelerate new discoveries. Still, many computational models either describe few cells highly detailed or larger cell ensembles and tissues more coarsely. Here, we connect these two scales in a joint theoretical model.

RESULTS

We developed a highly parallel version of the cellular Potts model that can be flexibly applied and provides an agent-based model driving cellular events. The model can be modular extended to a multi-model simulation on both scales. Based on the NAStJA framework, a scaling implementation running efficiently on high-performance computing systems was realized. We demonstrate independence of bias in our approach as well as excellent scaling behavior.

CONCLUSIONS

Our model scales approximately linear beyond 10,000 cores and thus enables the simulation of large-scale three-dimensional tissues only confined by available computational resources. The strict modular design allows arbitrary models to be configured flexibly and enables applications in a wide range of research questions. Cells in Silico (CiS) can be easily molded to different model assumptions and help push computational scientists to expand their simulations to a new area in tissue simulations. As an example we highlight a 1000³ voxel-sized cancerous tissue simulation at sub-cellular resolution.