Fig. 1
From: Tools to reverse-engineer multicellular systems: case studies using the fruit fly
Workflow for reverse-engineering multicellular systems and the broad applicability of Drosophila as an integrative test case. a A prototypical, iterative flow for systems analysis of multicellular systems consists of using microfluidic devices to precisely manipulate tissue samples, advanced imaging technologies to generate high-content data, image processing pipeline such as machine learning for data extraction and computational modeling for hypothesis revision and regeneration. b Drosophila is an excellent model organism for investigating a broad range of grand challenges in systems biology and bioengineering. For regenerative medicines, Drosophila helps identify physiological processes involved in wound closure. Drosophila also serves as models for many human diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. For personalized medicine and functional genomics, the effects of alternative gene mutations can be mapped to phenotype. Drosophila also serves as a high-throughput platform for drug screening that is physiologically relevant to human