Innovative Computer Model Accurately Simulates Cell Behavior
In the most detailed simulation of its kind, a new computer model accurately replicates the behavior of a living bacterial cell.
When you were in high school biology, you probably had to build models of cells using poster board, gummy worms and glue. Now, researchers have created a much more accurate model—a computerized version that accurately simulates cell behavior.
The cell models were created by a collaborative team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Biology in Germany and the University of Illinois in Champaign, Ill. To build the models, they used the latest powerful graphics processing unit (GPU) computing technology. GPU technology is the same imaging tool behind video games and projects like radiation reduction for cancer patients.
“This is the first time that we’re modeling entire cells with the complete contents of the cellular cytoplasm represented,” said University of Illinois postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the study Elijah Roberts in a statement. “We’re looking at the influence of the whole cellular architecture instead of modeling just a portion of the cell, as people have done previously.”
In the computer models of what are called “in silico cells,” the simulation accurately replicates the interior behavior of a cell reacting to sugar in its environment.
Source: Smarter Technology