Austin Leach
Simulation of Biological Systems
Final Project
May 4, 2007
Simulating Elastogenesis
For my
final project, I simulated the self assembly of tropoelastin into an elastin
network, following the path from the rough endoplasmic reticulum through the golgi apparatus, and finally
into the extra-cellular matrix. This
process is called elastogenesis.
The process is quite complex, and no doubt involves many
complex chemical signaling pathways and specific binding events. My model is a very crude simplification
of the entire process, and should only be considered a Ôproof-of-conceptÕ that
processes like this may be simulated with relative ease.
I wrote the simulation in processing, and it is based on
proximity sensing of molecules which have a specific affinity for one another.
For future directions, I think that it would be useful to
more accurately capture the physical behavior of the system, including but not
limited to specific binding events among the different classes of molecules.
The source code for my project may be found here.
Videos of the simulations, are below the slides.
Animation 1: 10 Tropoelastin (11.3 MB)
Animation 2: 50 Tropoelastin (11.2 MB)