Boolean modeling of gene regulatory networks: Driesch redux

摘要

Conducting research on sea urchins at the Naples Zoological Station, 19th century developmental biologist Hans Driesch demonstrated the totipotent nature of early embryonic cells, contributing significantly to the then-nascent field of "developmental mechanics." Driesch discussed the possibility of understanding the clocklike development of this organism in physical/ mathematical terms, but ultimately retreated from this stand later in his career (1). As developmental biology moves into its third century of existence as a modern science, we find that major advances are bringing us full-circle to approach central questions posed by early pioneers (Fig. 1). In PNAS, Peter et al. (2) describe a quantitative model to describe at a molecular level the processes of cellular differentiation that have fascinated generations of biologists, providing a means to link developmental and systems biology.