On the use of organisation modelling techniques to address biological organisation

Issue title: Multi-agent systems for medicine, computational biology, and bioinformatics

Guest editors: Giuliano Armano

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Bosse, Tibor^a | Jonker, Catholijn M.^b | Treur, Jan^{a; *}

Affiliations: [a] Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Agent Systems Research Group, Department of Artificial Intelligence, De Boelelaan 1081a, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands | [b] Delft University of Technology, Man Machine Interaction Group, Department of Mediametics, Mekelweg 4, 2628 CD Delft, The Netherlands | Department of Electrical and Electronical Engineering, University of Cagliari, Italy

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author. Tel.: +31 20 598 7763; mobile +31 6 15028916; Fax: +31 20 598 7653; E-mail: treur@cs.vu.nl

Abstract: This paper explores how the dynamics of complex biological processes can be modelled and simulated as an organisation of multiple agents. This modelling perspective identifies organisational structure occurring in complex decentralised processes and handles complexity of the analysis of the dynamics by structuring these dynamics according to an organisational structure. More specifically, dynamic properties at different levels of aggregation in the organisational structure are identified, and related to each other according to the organisational structure. The applicability of this organisational modelling approach to address complexity in biological context is illustrated by two case studies: the organisation of intracellular processes and the organisation of the circulatory system.

Keywords: Dynamics, organisation modelling, systems biology

DOI: 10.3233/MGS-2007-3205

Journal: Multiagent and Grid Systems, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 199-223, 2007