Symmetry Breaking, Directed Movement, and Organized Tissue Response from Local Interactions

How do living systems break symmetry, select among competing dynamical states and coordinate responses across scales? Using cell doublets as the smallest collective unit, the talk presents mathematical models, computational methods and dynamical-systems analysis of how local feedback, geometry and confinement shape collective states. Mechanochemical interactions are shown to generate directed, coordinated migration, while nonlinear feedback and spatial coupling produce coherent oscillations and travelling waves; extending these principles to larger clusters and tissues reveals emergent organisation relevant to development, wound healing and limb regeneration.