Section: Research Program

Axis2: Data-driven models of form development

Our aim in this second research axis will be to develop models of physiological patterning and bio-physical growth to simulate the development of 3D biological forms in a realistic way. Models of key processes participating to different aspects of morphogenesis (signaling, transport, molecular regulation, cell division, etc.) will be developed and tested in silico on 3D data structures reconstructed from digitized forms. The way these component-based models scale-up at more abstract levels where forms can be considered as continuums will also be investigated. Altogether, this will lead us to design first highly integrated models of form development, combining models of different processes in one computational structure representing the form, and to analyze how these processes interact in the course of development to build up the form. The simulation results will be assessed by quantitative comparison with actual form development. From a computational point of view, as branching or organ forms are often represented by large and complex data-structures, we aim to develop optimized data structures and algorithms to achieve satisfactory compromises between accuracy and efficiency.