Trypanosome motility in complex environments

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dmitry Fedosov, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Statistical Physics, Nonlinear Dynamics, Complex Systems, Soft and Fluid Matter, Biological Physics ; Biophysics
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 492006804

Trypanosome parasites cause trypanosomiasis, a group of diseases which affect a few million people worldwide. These parasites are able to survive in very different environments, including blood, different tissues, and the gut of tsetse fly. Furthermore, trypanosomes adapt their properties (e.g., propulsion, adhesion) to a specific environment in order to travel toward specific targets or niches. It is hypothesized that the parasites use viscoelastic properties of their surroundings for an efficient propulsion. Nevertheless, the question of how trypanosomes negotiate their way through very crowded tissue environments remains largely unanswered due to substantial experimental difficulties. Here, numerical modeling of trypanosome behavior in tissue-like media has a strong potential to complement existing experimental investigations and lead to a better understanding of trypanosome motility in complex crowded environments. The main objective of our project is to better understand the efficient propulsion of trypanosomes through complex crowded environments (mimicking biological tissues) using numerical modeling. During the first period of the priority program we have established an adaptable and reliable trypanosome model. This parasite model will be employed to investigate trypanosome motility through a dense suspension of soft non-adhering particles to better understand its propulsion mechanisms in crowded tissue-like environments. Furthermore, trypanosome propulsion through a tissue model, where soft cells adhere to each other, will be studied. Finally, trypanosome motility within an elastic network, which mimics parasite swimming within a hydrogel in vitro or through an interstitial space between cells in vivo, will be considered. As a result, our project will deliver biophysical mechanisms of trypanosome motion through some of its essential habitats, and its ability to negotiate crowded conditions of tissue-like environments. This project will contribute to different aspects of the DFG-SPP 2332 program, including parasitic locomotion and the interaction with its microenvironment.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 2332: Physics of Parasitism
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Gerhard Gompper