Until very recently, distance education, including digital science labs, served a rather small portion of postsecondary students in the United States and many other countries. This situation has, however, dramatically changed in 2020 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced colleges to rapidly transit from face-to-face instructions to online classes. Here, we report the development of an interactive simulator that is freely available on the web (http://neurosphere.cos.northeastern.edu/) for teaching lab classes in developmental biology. This simulator is based on cellular automata models of neural-stem-cell-driven tissue growth in the neurosphere assay. By modifying model parameters, users can explore the role in tissue growth of several developmental mechanisms, such as regulation of mitosis or apoptotic cell death by contact inhibition. Besides providing an instantaneous animation of the simulated development of neurospheres, the Neurosphere Simulator tool offers also the possibility to download data for detailed analysis. The simulator function is complemented by a tutorial that introduces students to computational modeling of developmental processes.

直到最近，远程教育（包括数字科学实验室）为美国和许多其他国家的一小部分专上学生提供了服务。但是，随着COVID-19大流行的到来，这种情况在2020年发生了巨大变化，这迫使大学迅速从面对面的教学转向在线教学。在这里，我们报告了交互式模拟器的开发，该模拟器可在网上免费获得（http://neurosphere.cos.northeastern.edu/），用于教授发育生物学的实验室课程。该模拟器基于神经球测定中神经干细胞驱动的组织生长的细胞自动机模型。通过修改模型参数，用户可以探索几种发育机制在组织生长中的作用，例如通过接触抑制调节有丝分裂或凋亡性细胞死亡。除了提供神经球模拟发展的瞬时动画之外，神经球模拟器工具还提供了下载数据进行详细分析的可能性。模拟器功能得到了教程的补充，该教程向学生介绍了开发过程的计算模型。