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'We now have unprecedented ability to collect data about nature but there is now a crisis developing in biology, in that completely unstructured information does not enhance understanding. We need a framework to put all of this knowledge and data into - that is going to be the problem in biology.

We've reached the stage where we can't talk to each other - we've all become highly specialized. We need a framework, a framework where people can come back to us and say, 'Yes, I understand.' Driving toward that framework is really the big challenge.'

Sydney Brenner

We believe that BioUML - Biological Universal Modeling Language - is a step in this direction. It is imagined as a language to write a "book of life". We hope that BioUML will be a platform for building virtual cell and virtual human.

From the user's perspective BioUML workbench is integrated environment that spans the comprehensive range of capabilities including access to databases with experimental data, tools for formalized description of biological systems structure and functioning, as well as tools for their visualization, simulation, parameters fitting and analyses (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1. BioUML workbench - example of cell cycle model visualisation and simulation.

 

Below we will briefly consider main concepts and possibilities of BioUML workbench.