Starting with asynchronous extensions of
L-systems she pioneered
agent-based modeling studying development of social structure in animal societies, using the opportunity based "ToDo" principle where agents "do what there is to do", and a "DoDom" principle for dominance ranking, also known as the winner-loser effect. This type of research later became popular in
artificial life. RNA folding was also introduced to allow for a non-linear genotype to phenotype mapping to study evolution on complex
fitness landscapes . The first phase-phase trajectory of a
chaotic attractor in an ecological food-chain model of three differential equations appeared long before chaos became popular. She pioneered the use of
cellular automata for studying spatial
ecological and
evolutionary processes and demonstrated that spatial
pattern formation can revert evolutionary selection pressures. Extending the
Cellular Potts model (CPM) to study morphogenesis and development she modeled the complete life cycle of
Dictyostelium discoideum using simple rules for
chemotaxis and differential adhesion . This CPM approach is now used for modeling in various areas of developmental biology, and the migration of immune cells in lymphoid tissues. Finally the CPM is used for
EvoDevo research. In recent years, Hogeweg has continued her research on co-evolutionary dynamics and morphogenesis, to expand on "adaptive genomics" and to study the interface between gene regulation and evolution in cellular organisms. Also, her research is focused on evolvability at the level of genome organization and regulatory networks, and has shown RNA increase in complexity as the result of interactions of secondary structure and spatial pattern formation. == Collaborations ==