MOSAIC

Our general aim in MOSAIC is to identify key principles of organism development in close 
collaboration with biologists by constructing a new generation of models based on explicit mathematical 
and computational representations of forms.For this we develop a dual modeling approach where 
conceptual models are used to identify self-organizing principles and realistic models to test non-trivial 
genetic and physical hypotheses in silico and assess them against observations. This will contribute to 
extend the domain of systems biology to developmental systems and help interpret where possible 
the vast amount of geometric, molecular and physical data collected on growing forms.  

While our approach will mainly focus on plant development at different scales, the MOSAIC team will 
also consider the morphogenesis of model animal systems, such as ascidians, to cross-fertilize the 
approaches and to open the possibility to identify abstractions and principles that are relevant to 
morphogenesis of living forms in general. Our work will focus on how physical and chemical processes 
interact within the medium defined by the form and feedback on its development. We will seek to integrate 
both mechanistic and stochastic components in our models to account for biological variability in shape 
development. In the long run, the team's results are expected to contribute to set up a new vision of 
morphogenesis in biology, at the origin of a new physics of living matter, and based on a more mechanistic 
understanding of the link between genes, forms and their environment.