Gireg Desmeulles, Laurent Misery and Vincent Rodin.
Modeling systems biology for in virtuo experiments.
Ecole thématique: Modélisation de systèmes biologiques complexes dans le contexte de la génomique, pages 119-120, Montpellier (France), 4-8 Avril 2005.
Abstract:
Nowadays, the Virtual Reality (VR) makes feasible the simulation and the (in virtuo) experimentation of complex phenomena, to complete the in vivo or the in vitro investigations. We apply this alternative method to the study of a complex pathology: the allergic urticaria. We have created a model of virtual skin.
The VR methods differ from classical analytical methods for the simulation in biology. They are based on the autonomy of the entities that populate the virtual universes and are focused on the user/simulation interaction. This aspect allows the coexistence of data having very different natures. It also permits to different disciplines (biology, computer science, dermatology, mathematics...) to collaborate. Thus, we use multiagent systems, the ARéVi plateform and algorithms based on reification of the interactions, on a concept of organisation and on a multimodelling approach. By "reification" we understand that interactions are taken as autonomous agents.
In this framework, we have built a skin cube of 600 µm length that we can experiment. Chemical reactions and diffusion have been inserted in this model. The obtained results are preliminary to the constitution of a wider biological model and allow envisioning in virtuo experiments on skin allergy and its treatment.
[Desmeulles05a.pdf]