A future computational neuroscience project could be to model not only the signal processing properties of neurons, but also all processes that keep a neuron alive for, say, a 100-year life span.
In 2012 the group of the guest published the first such whole-cell model for a very simple bacterium (M. genitalia). In 2020 a model of the larger E. coli bacterium comprising 10.000 equations and 19.000 model parameters was presented.
How are such models built, and what can they do?
Links:
- Karr et al: “A Whole-Cell Computational Model Predicts Phenotype from Genotype”, Cell (2012)
- Sanghvi et al: “Accelerated discovery via a whole-cell model”, Nature Methods (2013)
- Covert: “Simulating a Living Cell”, Scientific American (2014)
- Karr et al: “Summary of the DREAM8 Parameter Estimation Challenge: Toward Parameter Identification for Whole-Cell Models”, PLoS Computational Biology (2015)
- Carrera & Covert: “Why build whole-cell models?”, Trends in Systems Biology (2015)
- Macklin et al: “Simultaneous cross-evaluation of heterogeneous E. coli datasets via mechanistic simulation”, Science (2020)
- Hopfield: “Two cultures? Experiences at the physics- biology interface”, Physical Biology (2014)
- Home page of Markus Covert lab
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