Olaf Wolkenhauer (University of Rostock)
The claim that the primary goal of modeling is explanation, not prediction rings particularly true in the life sciences, where the complexity of the systems under consideration renders most representations more abstract than desirable, and thereby less predictive. As a consequence, the value of mathematical modeling in biology and medicine often lies in the process of constructing the model. I will present ongoing theoretical work studying cell-tissue co-determination. I describe how, in the process of modeling this phenomenon, I was led to a discovery concerning the autonomy of a cells within a tissue.
