Research

New Directions in Levin Lab Research

Image credit: after the Flammarion woodcut, by Jeremy Guay

Conceptual

quantitative enabling definitions of goal-directed activity and protocols for identifying and re-writing goals in vivo
continuum of agency (independent of substrate or origin story) - the TAME framework
observer-dependent models such as polycomputing
applications of paradigms such as active inference, causal information, and others for the cognitive light cone model
strategies for top-down control of (and communication with) cellular swarms
novel ethics frameworks for relating to diverse intelligences of unconventional composition and provenance

tools for AI-enabled bioinformatics of shape
software models of scaling of cognition across problem spaces
predictive environments for bioelectrical modeling
platforms for training pathways and inferring stimuli for GRN reprogramming
simulation frameworks for understanding how the process of natural evolution designs with agential materials
evolutionary models of scaling cognition, and of proto-cognitive competencies effects on evolutionary process
AI for design of biological robot properties

cracking the bioelectric code (mapping of voltage prepatterns to anatomical behaviors of cell groups)
investigating proto-cognitive capacities of biobots, chimeras, and hybrots
characterizing what cells and tissues can learn, and how that information moves throughout the body
characterizing generic, novel problem-solving abilities of evolution and its products (beyond direct selection)
identifying high-level triggers of morphogenetic subroutines for inducing complex regenerative outcomes

detecting, preventing, and reprogramming cancer bioelectrically
induction of limb and other organ regeneration
repair of birth defects using bioeletric strategy designed by computational platforms
design of stimuli for changing behaviors of transcriptional and other drug pathways in vivo