The fundamental carrier of life on Earth is a Cell. Cells are the structural and functional unit of all living organisms. The organisms range from single celled bacteria, to trillions of cells in large animals such as whales (humans consist of about 50 trillion cells, give or take a few billion ;)). Therefore, any new technique that enables us to understand how individual cells behave, or how they interact with their neighbors or the surroundings, has a lot of practical applications.
Now scientists at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory have constructed a computer simulation that allows them to study the relationship between biochemical fluctuations within a single cell and the cell's behavior as it interacts with other cells and its environment.

Simulation (Courtesy: University of Chicago)The simulation is called AgentCell. It is a model based on agents, which are semi-autonomous program modules that interact with other agents. For example, in a bacterial study, there will be hundreds of bacteria modeled, with each having it own chemotaxis network (phenomenon in which cells direct their movements according to certain chemicals in their environment), motors and flagella. If the cell behavior could be accurately modeled at the chemical level, then the aggregate network can be used to simulate large collections of cells, including bacterial swamps, diseases, and even population growths. Not surprisingly, this technique has possible applications in cancer research, drug development and combating bioterrorism.
A major goal in single-cell biology today is to document the connection between internal biochemical fluctuations and cellular behavior. AgentCell should be able to help in this research. It has already simulated some actual bacterial behavior: for example, In the bacteria E. Coli, one type of protein controlled the sensitivity of its chemotaxis system, which helps the bacteria find food. In the simulation, when the level of that protein was changed, it would change the sensitivity of the cell. The actual real-life cell behaved exactly in the same way:):).
The end goal of this research is focussed on solving problems involving bio-terrorism and disease spread. But another interesting by-product could be understanding how macro-processes (such as life) evolve from micro-processes (such as chemistry and fluid/energy transport systems):):).