Séminaire : From Multicellular Development to Morphogenetic Engineering to Synthetic Biology

René DOURSAT, ancien directeur de l'Institut des Systèmes Complexes et co-fondateur du Master Erasmus Mundus sur la Science des Systèmes Complexes de l'école Polytechnique, fera une présentation de ses travaux de recherche le mardi 9 Juin 2015 à 14h30 en salle des Thèses, au Nouveau Patio à l'Esplanade. Le séminaire sera en français contrairement au titre et au résumé.

Titre : From Multicellular Development to Morphogenetic Engineering to Synthetic Biology

Équipe : BFO

Résumé : René Doursat will present an overview of his work and collaborations linking (a) computational modeling in biology (i.e. understanding natural complex systems) to (b) bio-inspired computing in "artificial life" (i.e. creating technological complex systems) to (c) bio-engineering in synthetic biology (i.e. programming hybrid systems).
(a) First, he will talk about *MecaGen*, an agent-based model and simulation platform of animal embryogenesis centered on the physicochemical coupling of cell mechanics with gene expression and molecular signaling.
(b) Next, he will introduce *Morphogenetic Engineering*, a field taking its inspiration from biological development and evolution to create robotic, software or network architectures by decentralized self-assembly of elementary agents.
(c) Finally, he will address synthetic biology, a rising discipline promoting the standardized manufacturing of biological components without natural equivalents. Here, the *SynBioTIC* project addresses a complex challenge: "shape engineering", which concerns the "redesign" of natural morphogenesis using realistic agent-based simulations of bacterial mats.