Workshop Topics

Recent advances in systems and synthetic biology constitute a basis for the realization of the wetware approach to Artificial Life (AL), in addition to hardware and software approaches. Developing AL systems in wetware domains requires the use of chemical and biological materials to construct tools, devices, and systems capable of displaying life-like behaviors such as growth, division, adaptation, plasticity, evolution, autonomy, and other bio-inspired patterns.  

While thermodynamic and kinetic laws governing (bio)chemical processes provide a basis to attack the complex tasks of devising systems that significantly contribute to AL, it is also important to understand the organizational structure of AL systems. It is often noted that the governing principles of organizational structures rely on a characterization of information flow. As a consequence, it is natural to suspect that models and characterizations from information theory and communication theory will be useful in the study of organization in AL. 

The combination of areas such as synthetic biology, systems chemistry, chemical reaction network theory, and chemical organization have already impacted AL, as is often reported within the AL community. On the other hand, the exploration of the so-called “bio-them-ICTs” (bio-chem-information and communication technologies), and the theories behind them, known as “Molecular Communications”, have received—to date—limited attention from the AL community. 

The workshop Molecular Communication Approaches for Wetware Artificial Life aims to fill this gap, providing an arena for discussing how current interest in chemical information and chemical communication can converge with AL, especially in the context of synthetic biology and systems chemistry approaches. The field of Molecular Communications, recently developed from an engineering perspective, can provide valuable tools for achieving a higher degree of complexity in AL systems, including: (i) Synthetic/Artificial Cells or Protocells and their assemblies; and (ii) hybrid biological/artificial systems (e.g., Synthetic Cells that can communicate with biological cells; hardware/software microsystems interfaced to biological systems; networks made of both artificial and biological entities).

Some of the questions that we would like to address in this workshop are:

• What are the principles and models of molecular information and communication in wetware AL systems? How can we measure and compare the information content and flow in such biochemical systems? 

• How can engineering of molecular communication enhance the functionality and complexity of AL systems? 

• How can we create synthetic/artificial cells or protocells that can communicate with each other or with natural cells using MC? What are the design principles and mechanisms for generating emergent behaviors in synthetic/artificial cell populations or networks towards AL? 

• How can we model and analyze the network structure and dynamics of artificial and biological components that communicate via MC? What are the effects of noise, interference, feedback, adaptation, evolution, etc. on network behavior?
  
  

We invite all interested researchers to join us at the second version of this workshop at ALIFE 2024,  and to contribute to the discussions on MC  for wetware AL, including but not limited to those topics outlined above. 

Abstracts

TBA