System identification of mechano-chemical epithelial sheet dynamics

Collective migration of epithelial cells is a fundamental process of multi-cellular organisms. Our recent study using live imaging with FRET-based biosensor discovered that cell migration within an epithelial sheet is oriented by traveling waves of ERK activation. However, it is still elusive how the cells make a decision on migration direction by integrating mechano-chemical signals. Here, we performed reverse-engineering approach to extract a hidden control mechanism in the epithelial sheet dynamics in a data-driven manner. Our model has an ability to forecast cell migration quantified in time-lapse images. Therefore, our approach would be powerful to understand mechano-chemical epithelial sheet dynamics.