Team:KU Leuven/test
Our project
The KU Leuven team decided to work on the fundamental mechanisms that influence our society, namely patterns. Our mission is to generate different complex and astonishing biological patterns that can be steered towards defined directions. Guiding the pattern will happen through the applied stimuli. These will impact the swimming behavior of the cells and the way they communicate with each other. The combined effect of both characteristics causes the cells to aggregate and disperse, depending on their location on the plate. Eventually, a beforehand modelled and calculated pattern will be generated.
A better understanding of this process in combination with the appropriate and detailed predictive mathematical models, will be advantageous in many different fields, ranging from construction and design, to medicine and even electronics. Tumor formation and tissue regeneration are two of the examples where the medical world could benefit from a deeper knowledge of pattern formation. The generation of patterns in a controlled way will also allow the production of novel biomaterials. After forming a pattern, the cells can be engineered to precipitate or deposit networked bio-minerals, opening up exciting new avenues for the production of microstructured bio-composite materials. In the long term, describing the desired patterns of specific bacteria could lead to applications in miniature electrical conductors and/or electrical circuits.
