Object-oriented biological system integration: a SARS coronavirus example

  • Authors:
  • Daniel Shegogue;W. Jim Zheng

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Biostatistics, Bioinformatics and Epidemiology, Medical University of South Carolina 135 Cannon Street, PO Box 250835, Charleston, SC 29425, USA;Department of Biostatistics, Bioinformatics and Epidemiology, Medical University of South Carolina 135 Cannon Street, PO Box 250835, Charleston, SC 29425, USA

  • Venue:
  • Bioinformatics
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

Motivation: The importance of studying biology at the system level has been well recognized, yet there is no well-defined process or consistent methodology to integrate and represent biological information at this level. To overcome this hurdle, a blending of disciplines such as computer science and biology is necessary. Results: By applying an adapted, sequential software engineering process, a complex biological system (severe acquired respiratory syndrome-coronavirus viral infection) has been reverse-engineered and represented as an object-oriented software system. The scalability of this object-oriented software engineering approach indicates that we can apply this technology for the integration of large complex biological systems. Availability: A navigable web-based version of the system is freely available at http://people.musc.edu/~zhengw/SARS/Software-Process.htm Contact: zhengw@musc.edu Supplementary information: Supplemental data: Table 1 and Figures 1--16.