The virtual cell: creating models of complex cellular events

Computer scientists, mathematicians, and physicists are collaborating with cell biologists to build a tool, "Virtual Cell", that can merge data of cellular biochemistry with knowledge of cell structure to help us understand how cells produce complex behaviors. A cell is a highly complex factory that organizes thousands of different molecules to produce a specialized function. Microscopists have catalogued a wealth of data about the detailed structures within different types of cells and biochemists have assembled details about the properties and reactions of many of a cell's individual molecular constituents. The experimental information gathered from the test tube and from the microscope is married within "Virtual Cell" to construct a computer model which can produce simulations of how cells carry out a given function (e.g. secretion of insulin, contraction of heart muscle). What is produced are digital movies showing how each molecular species moves and reacts inside the cell during the cell biological process. Perhaps the most exciting application of this tool is that it allows scientists to ask questions about what happens when one step in a complex chain of events misfires or how a drug that is known to affect just a single enzyme might change the way a cell carries oat a specific function. But in addition to its else as a research tool, "Virtual Cell" can be a valuable teaching aid and may serve as a focus for organizing the tremendous knowledge base that comprises modern cell biology and biochemistry.