Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 157, 1-15 (2008)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2008-00626-x

Cell motility as random motion: A review

Cell motility as random motion

¹ Danish Polymer Centre, Risø National Laboratory, Technical University of Denmark, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark
² Department of Biological Physics, Etvs Lornd University (ELTE), 1117 Budapest, Hungary
³ Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
⁴ The Niels Bohr Institute, Blegdamsvej 17, 2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
⁵ Biosystems Department, Risø National Laboratory, Technical University of Denmark, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark
⁶ Max-Planck-Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Nthnitzer Strasse 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany
⁷ Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA

Corresponding author: henrik.flyvbjerg@risoe.dk

Abstract

The historical co-evolution of biological motility models with models of Brownian motion is outlined. Recent results for how to derive cell-type-specific motility models from experimental cell trajectories are reviewed. Experimental work in progress, which tests the generality of this phenomenological model building is reported. So is theoretical work in progress, which explains the characteristic time scales and correlations of phenomenological models in terms of the dynamics of cytoskeleton, lamellipodia, and pseudopodia.