Living tissues grow and organize through a continuous feedback loop between mechanics and biological decision-making. Here, I present a framework that treats each cell as a “computing unit,” making discrete decisions such as division, differentiation, or migration, based on local mechanical and chemical cues. Drawing inspiration from Hopfield networks, we model these decisions as threshold-based rules whose interactions produce emergent, tissue-scale mechanics. This perspective allows us to bridge the gap between the physics of soft matter and the logic of biological computation.
We first explore these ideas in cell monolayers, where interactions between cells and their substrate lead to striking transitions in organization. Simple mechanical–computational rules can generate rich collective phenomena, including cell sorting, flocking, and stream formation, which mirror behaviors found in active matter systems. We then extend this framework to organoid growth, embedding the cellular rules into a continuum “computing material” that interacts with its mechanical environment. Focusing on growth plate organoids in hydrogels of tunable elasticity, we show how mechanical feedback drives complex, nonlinear growth dynamics, far beyond what empirical growth laws predict.
By linking soft-matter mechanics to cell-level decision rules, this approach opens new pathways for the rational design of biomaterials that actively steer organoid morphogenesis. Such capabilities could reshape how we engineer complex tissues in vitro, with applications spanning regenerative medicine, developmental biology, and bioinspired materials
Franck Vernerey is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 2006 in the field of theoretical and applied mechanics. His interests are in developing statistical mechanics approaches to understand the emerging response of network-like materials in biology and their synthetic analog. These networks span several orders of magnitude, from the molecular scale (polymers) to the micron scale (cell networks) and the macroscale (insect aggregations and entangled filaments). Although theoretical, this research has applications in the mechanical characterization of living materials, the computational design of biopolymers for regenerative medicine as well as the development of bio-inspired functional soft materials. Dr. Vernerey is the author of more than 100 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters. He is also the recipient of the NSF career award in 2014 and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2017.