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As functional amyloid fibers biosynthesis is still not totally understood, there are not many models other than descriptive sketches that represent the curli formation. From these observations we decided to gather the information we could and build models from them as incomplete as they may be, in order to provide future teams working on engineered CsgA with a basis to start from.
We therefore were able to build up two models:

1. the CurLy'On Simulator, a computed simulation of CsgA secretion and polymerisation that, provided with the right parameters, could make for a good alternative to a mathematical model for a protein kinetics study;
2. the implementation of the only two mathematical models we could find in the litterature that seemed relevant (with biological justification) in describing in vitro CsgA polymerisation in the C language in a fashion that can be given to a numerical solver, as these models require a heavy calculation power.

The CurLy'On Simulator is based on the principles of Tim Hutton's artificial chemistry. In this way of modeling, every particle of the environment, be it a protein, an inorganic molecule or simply an atom, is represented as a spherical particle, characterized by a radius, a type (that we will represent by a letter) that can never change and a state (represented by a number) that may change when encountering other particles. These particles abide by a set of basic "rules" provided by the user. These rules specify if two particles that meet may bond (or unbond if they are already tied together) according to both their type and state.

For instance let's say that we have an environment containing only particles of the 'a' type in state 0, and the set of rules $$\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} a0+a0\rightarrow a1.a0 \\ a1.a1\rightarrow a1+a2\\ \end{array} \right.$$

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