Multicellular Agent-Based Modelling - The OpenVT Project (Part 1)

Organizers:

James Osborne (University of Melbourne ), James Glazier (Indiana University) Yi Jiang (Georgia State University)

Description:

Multicellular simulations have become indispensable in understanding complex biological phenomena, from tissue development to disease progression. But the diversity in simulation methods - from agent-based models, lattice-free models, stochastic particle simulations, etc - poses challenges in reproducibility, modularity, reusability, and integration within multi-scale simulation. This minisymposia aims to present the variety of multicellular simulations being used by the community along with the efforts to make these simulations replicable and reproducible. Through a series of scientific presentations, we will demonstrate the need for standardization, and the importance of sharing and reusing models. The minisymposia is broken up into three parts; Parts 1 and 2: Modelling Biological Systems 1 and 2. Part 3: Reproducibility and Standards. Parts 1 and 2 of the Minisymposia (Modelling Biological Systems 1 and 2) contain a series of scientifically focused talks to demonstrate the variety of modelling techniques and applications being used in multicellular simulations. These talks have a scientific focus however each talk will have 5 minutes dedicated to model specification/reproducibility/comparison. Part 3 of the Minisymposia (Reproducibility and Standards) contains a series of talks on the current efforts in reproducibility and standards for multicellular simulations including a report on the OpenVT Satellite meeting reproducibility challenge.

Diversity Statement:

The 12 speakers (across the three sessions) come from 11 different institutions from 6 different countries spread across 3 continents. Half of the speakers (6/12) are students or Early Career Researchers.