# Agent-based and multicellular simulations

Source: https://onco.cc/technologies/agent-based-tumour-models/  
OnCo record `agent-based-tumour-models` (Technology). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Instead of equations for average behaviour, agent-based models simulate every cell as an individual with rules for dividing, moving, dying and signalling, producing virtual tumours in which immune attack, drug delivery and evolution can be watched and tested.

## Summary

Agent-based models represent thousands to millions of cells as discrete agents on a lattice or in continuous space, each following rules drawn from biology, with diffusing chemicals such as oxygen and drugs computed alongside. Open frameworks such as PhysiCell and CompuCell3D and the Anderson-Chaplain and Rejniak lineages have simulated tumour growth under hypoxia, immune infiltration, nanoparticle delivery and the emergence of invasive phenotypes. They are the natural tool for testing adaptive therapy schedules and spatial hypotheses, at the cost of many parameters and heavy computation.

## Fields

- Kind: Technology
- Status: emerging
- Last checked: 2026-09-17
- Tags: mathematical-model
- Principle: Discrete cells with rule-based behaviour interact with each other and with continuous fields of nutrients and drugs; population behaviour emerges rather than being assumed.
- Since: 2005
- Strengths: Captures spatial and cell-level heterogeneity; Tests hypotheses no equation can express; Open, reusable frameworks
- Limitations: Many uncertain parameters; Computationally heavy; Validation against patient data is hard

## Sources

- Ghaffarizadeh and colleagues 2018, PhysiCell, PLOS Computational Biology: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005991
- PhysiCell: https://physicell.org/

## Connected records

- fronts: [AI & Computation](https://onco.cc/fronts/ai-computation/), [Drug Discovery Platforms](https://onco.cc/fronts/drug-discovery/)
- technologies: [AI compute and model platforms for oncology](https://onco.cc/technologies/ai-compute-platforms/), [Digital twins and virtual control arms](https://onco.cc/technologies/digital-twins-trials/), [Tumour-on-a-chip](https://onco.cc/technologies/tumour-on-chip/)

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