The transport game – modelling the physiology of cells

Biological cells contain a range of channels and transporters that work in coordination to regulate the absorption of nutrients, pH and electrical gradients. But given the enormous interdependence of these processes, what happens when one transporter fails? How will a given cell respond to a new environment? How many different ways can you combine biological transporters to yield the same conditions in the cell? Do we know all the transporters involves in a specific process or are there unknown proteins at play?

This project will aim to write a computer simulation code that models the movement of substrates into and out of cells as a fun game, a scientific tool and an educational resource. It will appeal to those with programming experience that want develop a new way of understanding the basic physiology of living cells.