Morphospace engineering: Morphological computation in scaffold design

Abstract

Scaffold geometry does more than support tissue—it encodes the rules by which matter organizes into function. Morphology operates as a generative constraint, transforming physical configuration into causal instruction. From molecular folding to cellular migration, form computes what matter can become. This work formalizes that principle across scales: using cellular automata as minimal models of morphogenesis and extending the same logic to scaffold design for tissue regeneration. Each scaffold can be described as a point in a high-dimensional morphospace whose axes—curvature, porosity, stiffness, fiber orientation—act as local update rules guiding cell behavior. Within this space, a viability kernel delineates the geometries that sustain growth and differentiation. By treating geometry as computation, bioengineering shifts from designing materials that contain life to shaping forms that generate it—a shape-first paradigm where the causal arrow runs from form to function.