Virtual Human Development

The Virtual Human Development Consortium brings together a global community of scholars and policy makers around the central goal of creating a computer-based simulator of human embryonic development. Our mission is to produce a state of the art simulator with the ability to predict efficiently and effectively the outcome of cellular tissue and potential regenerative therapies. The simulator will be a powerful tool that will: (1) Provide a window into the formation of the human body, catalyzing new hypotheses for the developmental biology field to push the boundaries outside of what we know about our origins; and (2) Serve as a platform for rational cellular design, allowing us to engineer biological substrates for regenerative medicine. The model can also be adapted for personalized medicine approaches. Such a simulator will be the key tool to catalyze rapid rounds of computational modeling in the biotechnology sector, fuelling the design-build-test cycle for lab-grown cells and tissues. Our aim is to produce an impactful simulator analogous to that of established simulation platforms for physics and chemistry, which have facilitated the rapid growth of complex engineered systems, such as computing platforms. It will serve as a tool for simulating engineered developmental systems, leading to robust bioprocesses for manufacturing designer cells, tissues, and organs on-demand.