TY - GEN
T1 - Multidisciplinary investigation into adult stem cell behavior
AU - D'Inverno, Mark
AU - Prophet, Jane
PY - 2005
Y1 - 2005
N2 - We are part of a multi-disciplinary team investigating new understandings of stem cell behaviour, and specifically looking novel ideas about how adult stem cells behave and organise themselves in the human body. We have used different methods and mechanisms for investigating and interpreting these new ideas from medical science. These have included mathematical modelling, simulation and visualisation as well as a series of art pieces that have resulted from looking at the overall nature of our combined multi-disciplinary attempt to investigate new theories of biological organisation. In this paper we look at several issues relating to our project. First, we provide reasons for why formal models and simulations are needed to explore this growing area of research. Is there an argument to suggest that we need simulations as a way in to understanding various properties of stem cells that are observed in wet lab experiments? Next, an introduction on current theoretical models of stem cells is presented along with an outline of some of the problems and limitations of these approaches. We then provide an overview of our agent-based model of stem cells, and discuss strategies for implementing this model as a simulation and its subsequent visualisation. Then we discuss the role of the artist (the second author) in developing our model and simulation and the influence of the artwork/exhibition on the other members in our team. Our premise is that artists can conceptualise scientific theories without the standard discipline-specific constraints, and thereby potentially influence the development of scientific theories, their mathematical formulation; and their associated aesthetics. Finally, we argue that for the field of bioinformatics to move forward in a holistic and cohesive manner more multi-disciplinary efforts such as ours would be of significant benefit to this research area [20]. This paper might be viewed as an advert for the benefits of multi-disciplinary teams in understanding new experimental data in medicine and biology. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.
AB - We are part of a multi-disciplinary team investigating new understandings of stem cell behaviour, and specifically looking novel ideas about how adult stem cells behave and organise themselves in the human body. We have used different methods and mechanisms for investigating and interpreting these new ideas from medical science. These have included mathematical modelling, simulation and visualisation as well as a series of art pieces that have resulted from looking at the overall nature of our combined multi-disciplinary attempt to investigate new theories of biological organisation. In this paper we look at several issues relating to our project. First, we provide reasons for why formal models and simulations are needed to explore this growing area of research. Is there an argument to suggest that we need simulations as a way in to understanding various properties of stem cells that are observed in wet lab experiments? Next, an introduction on current theoretical models of stem cells is presented along with an outline of some of the problems and limitations of these approaches. We then provide an overview of our agent-based model of stem cells, and discuss strategies for implementing this model as a simulation and its subsequent visualisation. Then we discuss the role of the artist (the second author) in developing our model and simulation and the influence of the artwork/exhibition on the other members in our team. Our premise is that artists can conceptualise scientific theories without the standard discipline-specific constraints, and thereby potentially influence the development of scientific theories, their mathematical formulation; and their associated aesthetics. Finally, we argue that for the field of bioinformatics to move forward in a holistic and cohesive manner more multi-disciplinary efforts such as ours would be of significant benefit to this research area [20]. This paper might be viewed as an advert for the benefits of multi-disciplinary teams in understanding new experimental data in medicine and biology. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.
KW - Art
KW - Cellular automata
KW - Interdisciplinary research and collaboration
KW - New technologies and methods
KW - Novel tools applied to biological systems
KW - Self-organizing
KW - Self-repairing and self-replicating systems
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=37149011763&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/pubmetrics.uri?eid=2-s2.0-37149011763&origin=recordpage
U2 - 10.1007/11599128_4
DO - 10.1007/11599128_4
M3 - RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication)
SN - 9783540308836
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science
SP - 49
EP - 64
BT - Transactions on Computational systems Biology III
A2 - Priami, Corrado
A2 - Merelli, Emanuela
A2 - Gonzalez, Pablo
A2 - Omicini, Andrea
PB - Springer
CY - Berlin, Heidelberg
T2 - 4th International Workshop on NETwork Tools and Applications in Biology (NETTAB 2004)
Y2 - 5 September 2004 through 7 September 2004
ER -