NewtonBioMorphX: simulating the mechanics of morphogenesis

Tissue growth under physical constraints can produce folds, creases and other patterns found across the animal kingdom. Research at LANE has used mechanical modelling to investigate patterns in species including dogs, chickens, crocodilians and tortoises.

Until now, using the laboratory's finite-element framework required editing and recompiling code. NewtonBioMorphX makes these simulations accessible through a graphical interface and GPU acceleration. It combines models of tissue growth, interactions between layers, plasticity, viscoelasticity and contact.

Users can create or import geometries, adjust material properties and growth conditions, and visualize results such as stress, deformation and fibre orientation. Twelve ready-to-run examples—including a model of polygonal scale patterns in crocodilians—support both research and teaching. Results can be exported for further analysis or recorded as videos.

NewtonBioMorphX is free and open source. The project page provides the manual, Windows and Linux executables, and source code. It requires an NVIDIA GPU with CUDA support.

Publication

NewtonBioMorphX: A computational framework for simulating tissue-scale mechanics of morphogenesis
Ebrahim Jahanbakhsh & Michel C. Milinkovitch
Computer Physics Communications (2026), 110452. DOI: 10.1016/j.cpc.2026.110452.