PhD: Learning interactions in collective cell migration

Our theory group is a worldwide leader in studying the statistical physics of living systems. We currently have an opening for an Vici funded 4-year PhD position position. We seek to uncover the fundamental interaction rules that govern collective cell migration—a central biological process underlying development, immune responses, and cancer progression.

We are looking for a highly motivated PhD candidate with an interest in combining non-equilibrium statistical physics, active matter physics, and statistical inference/AI to unravel how cell–cell interactions shape collective cell migration. A central goal of the project is to develop and apply data-driven theoretical frameworks that infer interaction rules directly from multicellular migration experiments. We therefore seek a candidate who is excited by rigorous statistical mechanics and data-driven modelling, and who is eager to use these approaches to understand how complex biological functions emerge from interactions between individual cells.