Figure 10

Framework illustrating a systematic approach that can be used to independently identify and quantify the mechanisms driving cell colony expansion. The mechanisms thought to be driving the expansion of a selected cell colony are identified and confirmed using visual inspection or other advanced experimental techniques. A mathematical modelling approach is selected and appropriate model parameters defined. Various experimental data is extracted to estimate the model parameters. For each additional mechanism considered, we anticipate that we will require at least one further piece of information from the experiments to quantify the role of that particular mechanism. The experimental data is analysed by extracting simulation data from the mathematical model and testing how well the model predictions match with the experimental data. If the modelling predictions provide a good match to the experimental data we stop the process. Alternatively, if the modelling predictions do not uniquely match the experimental data, we repeat the process iteratively using additional types of data extracted.