Alveolar Regeneration 2D: Krt8+ Transitional Cell-State Map

This is the 2D top-down companion to the 3D alveolar-dome regeneration simulator. After the flu, SARS-CoV-2, or another insult kills alveolar cells, the lung rebuilds its gas-exchange surface through a specific cellular relay: surviving ATII stem cells proliferate, activate into a Krt8+ "transitional" (aberrant basaloid) state, and then — if WNT and EGFR signalling resolve properly — differentiate into flat ATI cells. This view renders the same patch of alveolar epithelium as hundreds of individually tracked cells arranged in a flat sunflower-pattern map you can pan and zoom, each running its own stochastic state-transition clock, so you can trigger injury, tune how fast progenitors proliferate and how fast the transitional state resolves, and watch what happens when it doesn't: cells get stuck as Krt8+, fibrotic signalling burden climbs, and a senolytic-style intervention is the only way to clear them and let regeneration finish.