Vertex models for epithelial morphogenesis
What determines the mechanical state of a tissue during morphogenesis, and how do cells collectively regulate it? We develop vertex models in close collaboration with experimentalists, where model predictions and in vivo measurements inform one another iteratively. By integrating experimental data directly into our models and generating testable predictions, we investigate the interplay between tissue fluidity, cell-scale forces, and boundary formation across a range of morphogenetic processes. Together, these efforts yield mechanistic insights with implications for understanding congenital disorders and cancer.
Recent projects:
In the Drosophila embryo, we used a vertex model parameterized directly from in vivo measurements to show that ectoderm cell divisions play a key role: divisions release junctional tension, increase cell mobility, and fluidize the tissue. This fluidity refines the mesectoderm–ectoderm boundary as myosin cables disassemble, a prediction confirmed by laser ablation and pharmacological experiments. In this project, we worked together with the experimental group of Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez (University of Toronto).
In another project, we resolved a contradiction between theory and experiment: standard vertex models predict that enhanced adhesion promotes cell rearrangements, yet optogenetically stabilizing E-cadherin clusters dramatically impairs convergent extension, with myosin levels and cell shapes both remaining normal. By extending an anisotropic vertex model to include junction-specific viscous forces, we developed a dissipative adhesion framework that revealed frictional resistance from stabilized E-cadherin clusters, not cell shape, as the key parameter controlling the rate of cell rearrangements and tissue flow. In this project, we worked together with the experimental group of Ulrich Tepass (University of Toronto).
Recent publications:
E-cadherin clustering as a regulator of morphogenesis, Gerald Lerchbaumer, Sergio Simoes, Ermia Etemadi, Fadi Zidan, Gonca Erdemci-Tandogan, Ulrich Tepass
bioRxiv (2026).
Cell divisions both challenge and refine tissue boundaries in the Drosophila embryo, Veronica Castle, Merdeka Miles, Rafael Perez-Vicente, Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez, Gonca Erdemci-Tandogan Development 153, dev204817 (2026). (See also: research highlight & the people behind the papers)
Active wetting and living capillary bridges
Active wetting and living capillary bridges
Living tissues can behave like liquids, yet their constituent cells grow, divide, and migrate actively, giving rise to behaviors with no analog in passive systems. We explore this interplay by studying cellular aggregates under mechanical confinement. When compressed between two plates, cellular aggregates form living capillary bridges that thin over time, undergo convex-to-concave meniscus transitions, and can rupture through a collective instability driven by cell proliferation and active spreading. Using coarse-grained cell-based simulations, we show that jamming in bridge interiors stabilizes larger bridges and that division along the long axis enhances thinning. In this project, we worked together with the experimental group of Jaakko Timonen (Aalto University) and theoretical group of Mikko Karttunen (University of Eastern Finland).
Recent publications:
Living capillary bridges, Tytti Kärki*, Senna Luntama*, Yasamin Modabber*, Saila Pönkä, Gonca Erdemci-Tandogan, Mikko Karttunen, Grégory Beaune, Jaakko V. I. Timonen arxiv (2025).
Genome organization in viral capsids
The packaging of RNA genomes inside viral protein shells is governed by electrostatic interactions between the negatively charged genome and the positively charged N-terminal domains of coat proteins. Mean-field theories predict how salt concentration shapes radial genome organization, but they smooth out discrete molecular details. We developed coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations with explicit ions, polarizable water, and full Coulomb electrostatics to test these predictions directly. Our results confirm the leading-order salt-dependent behavior while revealing quantitative deviations arising from discrete ion correlations and binding-site geometry. Equilibration times increase sevenfold with salt, a kinetic signature inaccessible to equilibrium theory and potentially significant during viral assembly.
Recent publications:
RNA-like polyelectrolytes in viral capsids: molecular dynamics with explicit electrostatic interactions, Xintong Jiang, Colin Denniston, Gonca Erdemci-Tandogan under review (2026).
Full publication list
Copyright © 2021 Gonca Erdemci-Tandogan – All Rights Reserved.