Cell competition: who makes the first move?

Poster presented as part of the Crick BioImage Analysis Symposium. 

Cell competition: who makes the first move?

My PhD project focuses on understanding cell competition from a single-cell perspective. I use time lapse microscopyand deep learning image analysis to reverse engineer the mechanisms of two different forms of competition. Cell competition is a biological quality-control phenomenon fundamental to tumorigenesis prevention and healthy devel-opment. The outcomes of cell competition are well established on a population wide level, but the single-cell mechanismsare yet to be fully identified. In this project I have aimed to answer the question of which populations are driving the competition; is it the winner cellsfighting off the losers, the losers sacrificing themselves, or a combination of both?I employ bespoke image analysis scripts to visualise, segment, classify and track large volumes of single-cell image data in order to yield a quantitative assessment of cellular activity. In doing so I aim to further define the characteristics of competition and to ask what really constitutes competition in the first place.

Permission has been given by authors to upload to Crick Figshare. Copyright remains with the original holders.