Explain the emergence of distinct invasion modes from shared cellular mechanisms

Explain how the same underlying biophysical mechanisms of cell migration, chemotaxis, cell–cell interaction, and proliferation generate distinct collective invasion modes, including stream migration and cohesive clump invasion.

Background

The paper studies collective cell invasion using a mesoscopic kinetic model of active, interacting, and proliferating cells subject to self-generated chemotaxis. It derives distinct macroscopic hydrodynamic descriptions under different asymptotic relationships between cell movement and proliferation timescales.

Stream-like invasion and cohesive clump or aggregate invasion are observed in different biological settings despite being driven by broadly similar cellular processes. The authors identify the mathematical description of these patterns under selected scaling regimes, but frame a general explanation of how common underlying mechanisms produce the different invasion modes as an unresolved challenge.

References

Despite being driven by the same underlying biophysical mechanisms, different patterns of invasion can be observed: from stream migration – such as in neural crest cell invasion [5–7], to the cohesive movement of cell clumps or aggregates – such as in tissues and dense cell collectives [8–10]. Understanding how the same underlying cellular mechanisms give rise to these distinct invasion modes remains an open challenge.

— Hydrodynamic theories of chemotaxis-driven invasion in proliferating cell populations  (2608.27833 - Celora et al., 28 Aug 2026) in Introduction, page 1