Colonies of Synchronizing Agents: An Abstract Model of Intracellular and Intercellular Processes

We present a modelling framework and computational paradigm called Colonies of Synchronizing Agents (CSAs), which abstracts intracellular and intercellular mechanisms of biological tissues. The model is based on a multiset of agents (cells) in a common environment. Each agent has a local contents, stored in the form of a multiset of atomic objects, updated by multiset rewriting rules which may act on individual agents (intracellular action) or synchronize the contents of pairs of agents (intercellular action). Using tools from formal language and temporal logic we investigate dynamic properties of CSAs, including robustness and safety of synchronization. We also identify classes of CSAs where such dynamic properties can be algorithmically decided.