Mini-Workshop: The Mathematics of Growth and Remodelling of Soft Biological Tissues

Abstract

Biology is becoming one of the most attractive fields of applica- tion of mathematics. The discoveries that have characterized the biological sciences in the last decades have become the most fertile matter for applica- tion of classical mathematical methods, while they o! er a natural environ- ment where new theoretical questions arise. Mathematical Biology has born many years ago and has developed along directions that now constitute its tra- ditional background: population dynamics and reaction-di! usion equations. Nowadays Mathematical Biology is di! erentiating into several branches, es- sentially depending on the specific spatial scale size under consideration: molecular scale, i.e., DNA transcription, protein folding and cascades, cel- lular scale, i.e., motility, aggregation and morphogenesis, and macroscale, i.e., tissue mechanics. Currently one of the most attractiv es cientif ic top- ics is the mathematics of growth and remodelling of soft biological tissues. This area, located at the crossroads of biology, mathematic sa nd continuum mechanics, concerns the statement and analysis of the equations that charac- terize the mechanics, growth and remodelling of systems lik ea rteries, tumors and ligaments, studied at the macroscopic scale. These are open continuous systems that pose new challenging questions, which go beyon dt he standard mechanics that is traditionally devoted to closed systems. Past initiatives in Oberwolfach have been devoted to the interaction between biology and math- ematics in a broad sense. The idea to this minisymposium is to bring together established researchers on this topic with newer entrants t ot he fi eld and initi- ate discussion on established and novel approaches towards the mathematics of growth and remodelling of soft biological tissues.