Cellular Automata Approaches to Biological Modeling

We review a number of biologically motivated cellular automata (CA) that arise in models of excitable and oscillatory media, in developmental biology, in neurobiology, and in population biology. We suggest technical and theoretical arguments that permit greater speed and enhanced realism, and apply these to several classical examples of pattern formation. We also describe CA that arise in models for fibroblast aggregation, branching networks, trail following, and neuronal maps.