An in silico platform for the study of epithelial pre-invasive neoplastic development

To study the possible mechanisms of epithelial preneoplastic development we developed an integrated platform using a 3D agent-based model (ABM). This platform, named idefics, allows for the implementation of normal biological rules at the cell level that interact and generate the usual homeostatic equilibrium of epithelium as well as other abnormal processes that can disrupt this equilibrium. The structure of this model is based on data from multi-scale quantitative analysis of a unique collection of preneoplastic lesions of the lung, cervix, and oral epithelium, that have been collected in our lab in the last 25 years. In this paper, we are describing the different components of this platform and will present results from different simulations generated by the model.