What makes a cluster of cells become a liver or a muscle? How do our genes give rise to proteins, then proteins to cells and then cells to tissues and organs?

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A pair of mathematicians has introduced a new way of thinking about the incredible complexity of how these biological systems interact, which may help set the stage for better understanding of our bodies and other living things.

Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the pair from the University of Michigan Medical School and University of California, Berkeley, explain a framework for using math to understand how genetic information and interactions between cells give rise to the actual function of a particular type of tissue.

They note it’s a highly idealized framework, and not one that takes into account every detail of this process, called “emergence of function.”

But by stepping back and making a simplified mathematics model, they hope to create a basis for scientists to understand the changes that happen over time within and among cells to make living tissues possible. It could also help with understanding how diseases such as cancer can arise when things don’t go as planned.