Software helps decrypt embryonic development
Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - 08:31
in Biology & Nature
When new life develops, a tiny ball of initially identical cells has to form the different body parts of the mature organism. Sixty years ago, Alan Turing proposed that this body patterning is achieved by two types of signaling molecules that spread in the developing tissues to create a spatial pattern. Scientists from the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society in Tübingen have now developed new mathematical approaches and software to systematically analyze realistic pattern forming networks that involve more than two molecules. The software can be used to analyze how patterns form during development and to create novel patterns for bioengineering approaches.