Neural Tube Closure: Hinge-Point Folding Simulator

During the third and fourth weeks of human development, the flat neural plate must fold itself into a sealed tube, and it does so by bending sharply at three lines of cells — the median hinge point and two dorsolateral hinge points — while a wave of closure zips the seam shut from a starting point near the future hindbrain outward toward both ends. This simulator builds that fold as an interactive 3D grid of neuroepithelial cells whose cross-section curls in real time as apical constriction is applied at each hinge, and lets you dial down median or dorsolateral constriction, or the systemic folate/methylation factor that both hinges depend on, to see exactly how and where the tube fails to seal — the anterior neuropore staying open in an anencephaly-like pattern, or the posterior neuropore staying open in a spina bifida-like pattern.