(July 19,
2012) A mammoth
effort has produced a complete computational model of the bacterium Mycoplasma
genitalium, opening the door for biological computer-aided design.
In a
breakthrough effort for computational biology, the world's first complete
computer model of an organism has been completed, Stanford researchers reported
in the journal Cell. The paper was published online today.
By encompassing the
entirety of an organism in silico, the paper fulfills a longstanding goal for
the field. Not only does the model allow researchers to address questions that
aren't practical to examine otherwise, it represents a stepping-stone toward
the use of computer-aided design in bioengineering and medicine.
A team led by Markus Covert, assistant professor of
bioengineering, used data from more than 900 scientific papers to account for
every molecular interaction that takes place in the life cycle of Mycoplasma
genitalium, the world's smallest free-living bacterium.