Minisymposium
Modelling the Cancer Microenvironment
Organisers
- Ryan Thiessen (University of Alberta)
- Thomas Hillen (University of Alberta)
Speakers
- Tracy Stepien (University of Florida)
- Erica Rutter (University of California Merced)
- Morgan Craig (Université de Montréal)
- Ernesto Augusto Bueno Da Fonseca Lima (University of Texas at Austin)
- Kathleen Wilkie (Toronto Metropolitan University)
- Furkan Kurtoglu (Indiana University)
- Nadia Loy (Politecnico di Torino)
- Ryan Thiessen (University of Alberta)
Description
The impact of the microenvironment on cancer growth is one of the hallmarks of cancer, as identified in three seminal papers by Hanahan and Weinberg. The tumor microenvironment refers to different cell populations, such as healthy stroma cells and immune cells, extra cellular matrix proteins, nutrients and cell signalling molecules, and blood vessels. Corresponding mathematical models are spatially dependent population models, which are implemented as individual based models (IBM), stochastic models, or as partial differential equations (PDEs).
In this Minisymposium we will use these mathematical models to better understand the interactions of tumor tissue and its surrounding healthy microenvironment, to answer questions about local invasions of cancer cells, mechanical interactions of tumor tissue with its surroundings, competition between healthy and cancerous tissue, cancer metastasis, and the interaction with the immune response.