Towards Agent-based Simulation in Developmental Biology
Scott Christley, Xuelian Zhu, Stuart A. Newman, Mark S. Alber
2006 Agent-Directed Simulation (ADS 2006)
Huntsville, AL, USA, April 2-6 2005
Abstract
Mathematical and computational models have played an increasingly prominent role in developmental biology in recent years. As a methodology, mathematical models can suffer as poor conceptual explanations of biology though they can provide strong quantitative results. Recent computational models have attempted to integrate complex systems approaches of cellular automata, biological lattice gases, and agent-based simulation with equations into hybrid models. These models provide better conceptual ties with the underlying biology, and they maintain the strong quantitative aspects of the mathematical models. In this article, we present such a hybrid approach for a model of high-density ("micromass") cultures of precartilage mesenchymal cells from the embryonic vertebrate limb. The model accurately simulates the size and distribution of precartilage condensations present in the cell cultures, and discovery of two regimes of behavior has suggested hypotheses currently being tested in biological experiments.