Title
Executable Modeling of Morphogenesis: A Turing-Inspired Approach
Abstract
In his pioneering 1952 paper, “The chemical basis of morphogenesis”, Alan Turing introduced, perhaps for the first time, a model of the morphogenesis of embryo development. Central to his theory is the concept of cells with chemical entities that interact with morphogens to drive embryonic development through changes in what he termed ‘the state of the system’. Turing's concepts have inspired many mathematical and computational models proposed since then. Here we discuss the way Turing's ideas inspired our approach to the state-based modeling of morphogenesis, which results in a fully executable program for the interactions between chemical entities and morphogens. As a representative example we describe our modeling of pancreatic organogenesis, a complex developmental process that develops from a flat sheet of cells into a 3D cauliflower-like shape. We show how we constructed the model and tested the relations between morphogens and cells, and illustrate the analysis of the model against experimental data. Finally, we discuss a variant of the original Turing-Test for a machine's ability to demonstrate intelligence as a future means to validate computerized biological models, like the one presented here.
Year
DOI
Venue
2012
10.3233/FI-2012-722
Fundam. Inform.
Keywords
Field
DocType
complex developmental process,state-based modeling,embryonic development,chemical basis,embryo development,executable modeling,computerized biological model,alan turing,chemical entity,turing-inspired approach,computational model,cauliflower-like shape
Computer science,Computational model,Artificial intelligence,Turing,Executable,Morphogenesis
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
118
4
0169-2968
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.36
7
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Yaki Setty1203.13
Irun R. Cohen229621.62
David Harel397031953.76