Editing Modelling biological systems (section)

===Cellular model===
{{Main|Cellular model}}
[[File:Signal transduction pathways.svg|thumb|right|200px|Part of the [[cell cycle]]]]
[[File:EltonFW.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Summerhayes and Elton's 1923 food web of Bear Island (''Arrows represent an organism being consumed by another organism'').]]
[[File:Lotka Volterra dynamics.svg|thumb|300px|right|A sample [[Time series|time-series]] of the [[Lotka–Volterra equation|Lotka–Volterra model]].  Note that the two populations exhibit [[Limit cycle|cyclic behaviour]].]]
Creating a cellular model has been a particularly challenging task of [[systems biology]] and [[mathematical biology]]. It involves the use of [[computer simulation]]s of the many [[cell (biology)|cellular]] subsystems such as the [[metabolic network|networks of metabolites]], [[enzyme]]s which comprise [[metabolism]] and [[Transcription (biology)|transcription]], [[Translation (biology)|translation]], regulation and induction of gene regulatory networks.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Carbonell-Ballestero M, Duran-Nebreda S, Montañez R, Solé R, Macía J, Rodríguez-Caso C | title = A bottom-up characterization of transfer functions for synthetic biology designs: lessons from enzymology | journal = Nucleic Acids Research | volume = 42 | issue = 22 | pages = 14060–14069 | date = December 2014 | pmid = 25404136 | pmc = 4267673 | doi = 10.1093/nar/gku964 }}</ref>

The complex network of biochemical reaction/transport processes and their spatial organization make the development of a [[predictive modelling|predictive model]] of a living cell a grand challenge for the 21st century, listed as such by the [[National Science Foundation]] (NSF) in 2006.<ref>[https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1135003 American Association for the Advancement of Science]</ref>

A whole cell computational model for the bacterium ''[[Mycoplasma genitalium]]'', including all its 525 genes, gene products, and their interactions, was built by scientists from Stanford University and the J. Craig Venter Institute and published on 20 July 2012 in Cell.<ref>[http://www.cell.com/abstract/S0092-8674%2812%2900776-3 Karr, J. (2012) A Whole-Cell Computational Model Predicts Phenotype from Genotype Cell]</ref>

A dynamic computer model of intracellular signaling was the basis for Merrimack Pharmaceuticals to discover the target for their cancer medicine MM-111.<ref>[http://mct.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2012/02/17/1535-7163.MCT-11-0820.short McDonagh, CF (2012) Antitumor Activity of a Novel Bispecific Antibody That Targets the ErbB2/ErbB3 Oncogenic Unit and Inhibits Heregulin-Induced Activation of ErbB3. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics ]</ref>

[[Membrane computing]] is the task of modelling specifically a [[cell membrane]].