Leadership and invasion
Cell groups are rarely uniform, and the differences between cells matter. A computational framework for cell motility showed how leadership and invasion arise in migrating groups from mechanical interactions alone (Kabla, Journal of the Royal Society Interface 2012). In a computational model of tumour spheroids, mechanical heterogeneity promotes collective invasion of the surrounding tissue (Hallou, Jennings and Kabla, Royal Society Open Science 2017). Experiments led by collaborators, in embryos and in cell sheets, address related questions. In neural crest cells, leader cells define the direction of migration in the trunk but not in the head (Richardson et al., Cell Reports 2016, with Claudia Linker), and migration in vivo requires an increase in tissue fluidity (Kuriyama et al., Journal of Cell Biology 2014, with Roberto Mayor). In cell sheets, the migration of the group depends on single-cell mechanics and polarity as well as on signals passed through junctions (Jain et al., Nature Physics 2020, with Benoît Ladoux).