Eran Agmon - University of Connecticut
Biography
Title: Emerging Goals: A Compositional Framework for Modeling Biological Agents
Abstract: Traditional systems biology models often lack the modular and compositional nature inherent in their biological counterparts. Simulators are typically written as monolithic, preset structures, and the models they simulate focus on the dynamics of specific biological subsystems, often in controlled conditions. To address this, I have proposed a compositional framework for systems biology that emphasizes the interfaces, interconnections and orchestration of subsystems, allowing for the natural emergence of system-level behaviors from lower-level interactions. Compositional systems biology aims to connect models of different subsystems into integrative multiscale simulations, bridging processes across molecular, cellular, and organismal levels, each with distinct spatial and temporal dynamics.
In this talk, I will present a compositional perspective on building multiscale models of minimal biological agents, and demonstrate how this can account for goal-directed behavior. The framework emphasizes the importance of designing models that capture the underlying principles of biological systems, including how goals and viability boundaries are dynamically managed through the cellular interface. By rethinking model structures to allow goals to emerge naturally, compositional systems biology enhances our understanding of cellular functionality, improving our ability to predict and influence biological outcomes in complex environments.
