Vawer A, Rashbass J
Department of Histopathology, University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke's Hospital, UK.
Comput Methods Programs Biomed. 1997 Mar;52(3):203-11. doi: 10.1016/s0169-2607(96)01796-8.
The program described here has been written to enable pathologists and biologists with almost no computer experience to design complex models of cell interactions. The program although simulating in only two dimensions allows the user to define the individual rules governing cell behaviour using a language called Cell Description Language, then simulates the multiple interactions between the cells to produce a dynamic visual interpretation representing tissue growth and differentiation. The program has been developed using the World Wide Web, thereby giving access to anyone with an Internet connection. The Web technology allows others to use our powerful computers to perform the complex calculations that are necessary and effectively eliminates the problems of modifying and compiling the program to run on more than one hardware platform. The changes that take place during the simulation are presented as a video using the MPEG video format; they may then be viewed on many different types of computers. The toolbox provides a novel approach to computer-based biological simulations and an excellent resource for teaching.
这里描述的程序是为了让几乎没有计算机经验的病理学家和生物学家能够设计细胞相互作用的复杂模型而编写的。该程序虽然只在二维空间进行模拟，但允许用户使用一种名为“细胞描述语言”的语言来定义支配细胞行为的个体规则，然后模拟细胞之间的多种相互作用，以生成代表组织生长和分化的动态视觉解释。该程序是利用万维网开发的，因此任何有互联网连接的人都可以使用。网络技术使其他人能够使用我们强大的计算机来执行必要的复杂计算，并有效消除了修改和编译程序以在多个硬件平台上运行的问题。模拟过程中发生的变化以MPEG视频格式呈现为视频；然后可以在许多不同类型的计算机上观看。该工具箱为基于计算机的生物模拟提供了一种新颖的方法，也是一种优秀的教学资源。
