Creation of a computer system for modeling and visualization of a multicellular organism C. elegans as an urgent interdisciplinary problem at the intersection of neurobiology, biophysics and information technology

The problem of creating a complex multilevel computer model of a living organism, including its nervous system, is considered as a new promising direction at the intersection of neurobiology, biophysics, cybernetics and computer modeling. The most likely candidate for the role of the first "virtual organism" is considered to be a thoroughly studied invertebrate, the nematode C. elegans, whose nervous system is represented by only 302 neurons. The task of creating a virtual organism based on it seems to be a necessary step towards more complex nervous systems. The report discusses issues related to three-dimensional computer modeling of the biomechanics of C. elegans movement in various environments, as well as modeling the activity of its nervous, sensory and muscular systems. The results obtained by us are presented both in the field of developing specialized software for simulating the body of a virtual organism (equipped with a muscular system and capable of registering mechanosensory signals) and its movements in a three-dimensional environment with current physical laws, and in the field of modeling neural activity taking into account the electrophysiological features of C. elegans. The simulator supports calculations of the dynamics of incompressible fluid, elastic objects, muscle fibers and waterproof films, on the basis of which both the body itself and its environment are constructed. Parallel GPU computing using OpenCL is used to improve performance. Since 2011, work in this area of research has been carried out in cooperation with the non-profit international project OpenWorm (www.openworm.org ), the purpose of which is biologically reliable modeling of C systems. elegans and the creation of the world's first virtual organism based on it.