Collective Behavior in a Composite of Cells Embedded in a Biopolymer Network

Biopolymer networks in the cytoskeleton maintain flexible yet resilient structures, dynamically restructuring through interactions with motor and crosslinking proteins. To better understand these properties, such networks are recreated and studied in vitro. Motivated by experiments embedding cells capable of timed protein release into these networks to induce mechanical changes, we first aim to understand how the presence of the cells alone affects network organization. To investigate this, we developed an in silico model consisting of cells, represented as soft colloids, embedded in a biopolymer network. Our study focuses on the emergent morphology and structure of these networks across varying concentrations of cells, biopolymers, motor proteins, and crosslinkers. Using agent-based Langevin dynamics simulations, we analyze the resulting structures through spatial correlation functions and the dynamics of cells via trajectories and mean squared displacements. These findings are compared with experiments to establish a baseline for future research on networks embedded with protein-secreting cells.