Dr. Niels Grabe

Dr. Niels Grabe worked on a joint project he established between the Center for Bioinformatics and the Department of Dermatology at the University Hospital Hamburg (Prof. Dr. Karsten Neuber). Goal of this project was to create a junior research group on epidermal systems biology (EPISIM),. As a result, the first simulation of a dynamic, intact, and healthy epithelial tissue structure was developed and published. The simulation is currently the only one connecting a dynamic homeostatic morphology of the human epidermis with a differentiation program individually running in each of the simulation's cells. This was achieved by implementing a dedicated application of the multi-agent-system MASON. The multi-agent-approach enables the study of tissue morphology as a swarm like, emergent phenomenon arising from the dynamic interplay of individual cells. The software is now being further refined in Dr. Grabe's Group at the Department of Medical Informatics at the University Hospital Heidelberg.

N. Grabe, K. Neuber (2005): "A multicellular systems biology model predicts epidermal morphology, kinetics and Ca2+ flow." Bioinformatics. 2005 Sep 1;21(17):3541-7
N. Grabe, K. Neuber (2005): "Simulation of epidermal homeostasis including barrier formation", First FEBS Advanced Course on Systems Biology SysBio2005, Gosau, Austria.
N. Grabe, K. Neuber (2005): "Systems biological model of dynamic processes in epidermis." XXXII. Jahrestagung der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Dermatologische Forschung. Innsbruck, Austria.