Modeling and Simulation of Collective Behavior in Actin-Propelled Beads

Many biological systems exhibit collective behavior and self-organization where actin plays an important role in their movement. Organisms such as the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes exploit actin polymerization to gain motility. Similarly, self-organized motility has been realized in vitro through colloidal systems that use actin polymerization to self-propel. We model the flocking behavior observed experimentally involving these active beads by numerically solving a set of reaction-diffusion-based differential equations. We aim to collect statistics on relevant properties of the flocks, such as their size and persistence, and compare with experimental data. The goal of the project is to use simulations to further test hypotheses on how system parameters such as actin concentration, particle number density, and particle-to-system size ratio control the collective behavior of these active beads.