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Center for Nonlinear Studies |
Systems biology requires a computational infrastructure in which an in-silico model can be built incrementally and in a modular way by combining descriptions of parts (molecules, compartments, cells), much as a biochemist constructs an in vitro system by mixing ingredients in a test tube. Such modularity is fundamentally different from modularity in engineering design. An infrastructure for building these models needs to treat models as programs, not data, and must be capable of reasoning and metaprogramming. I'll discuss little b, a language I designed to address these issues, and show how it has been used to address multicellular pattern formation, and signal transduction involving the mammalian scaffold protein, Kinase Suppressor of Ras (KSR1).