Computerised biology, or how to control a population of cells with a computer

Researchers from the Pasteur Institute and Inria, with researchers from the CNRS and Paris Diderot University, and from the Institute of Science and Technology (IST) in Austria, have published two articles in Nature Communications about computer control of cellular processes. Hybrid experimental platforms combining microscopes and software are enabling researchers to interface living cells with control algorithms in real time. The two articles illustrate that these solutions make it possible to create new and easily reprogrammable behaviours of cell populations. This external control of living tissue would then become a formidable research tool for acquiring a detailed understanding of the biological role of certain proteins and for optimising bio-production processes.

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