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Check out my latest thread for @epimechfc.bsky.social and dive into how a 70 yr old mathematical theory may explain pattern self-organisation in biology!

Although biology isn’t yet a predictable engineering science, combining modelling with perturbation and reconstruction experiments brings us one step closer. Thanks for reading! @benswedlund.bsky.social out. bsky.app/profile/epim...

As in natural systems, synthetic reaction-diffusion systems can be coupled with other patterning mechanisms, such as differential adhesion, to generate more robust patterns.
doi.org/10.64898/202...

But are these remarkably simple circuits really sufficient to generate patterns in living cells? I tested this by engineering minimal two-component synthetic reaction-diffusion circuits in mammalian fibroblasts and… they self-organised beautiful patterns.
doi.org/10.64898/202...

But how do we identify reaction-diffusion circuits within complex biological networks? We need to know what to look for. Computational screening of thousands of circuit architectures helps us identify the designs that have the ability to generate patterns.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

Beyond embryonic development, self-organised reaction-diffusion-type mechanisms may also contribute to pattern formation in adult tissues, and even during disease progression.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

Of course, biology is not purely self-organised, as embryonic development is a precise sequence of inter-dependent patterning events. Positional information, encoded in the form of morphogen gradients, can orient and constrain self-organised patterning.
doi.org/10.1242/dev....

Models are useful because they can make predictions. Alterations in Turing systems are predicted to change the spacing (wavelength) of the pattern – and that has been observed during digit formation, another reaction-diffusion-mediated patterning event.
doi.org/10.1126/scie...