Treffer: Morphospace engineering: Morphological computation in scaffold design.

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.
(Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.