Modeling the multiscale order of epithelia with the cellular Potts model

As recent theoretical and experimental work found evidence of multiscale hexanematic order in confluent layers of epithelial cells, I will describe our attempts to investigate the origin of this unconventional organization of living matter using large-scale GPU simulations of the cellular Potts model. The cellular Potts model is an effective mechanical model for cell dynamics, which in our case is active due to an actin-filament field that drives cell motility. By measuring different types of liquid crystal order we are able to construct a rich phase-diagram, where hexatic and nematic order conspire across length scales towards establishing a global out-of-equilibrium state in which both the size and the dynamics of spatially coherent cell clusters can be tuned on demand.