Object-oriented biological system integration: a SARS coronavirus example.
BACKGROUND
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.


BACKGROUND
A navigable web-based version of the system is freely available at http://people.musc.edu/~zhengw/SARS/Software-Process.htm
Shegogue
Daniel
D
Department of Biostatistics, Bioinformatics and Epidemiology, Medical University of South Carolina, 135 Cannon Street, PO Box 250835, Charleston, SC 29425, USA.
Zheng
W Jim
WJ
D000818:Animals; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D045473:Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus / Q000472:pathogenicity* / Q000502:physiology*; D045169:Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome / Q000821:virology*; D049490:Systems Biology / Q000379:methods*; D018511:Systems Integration; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*
D014764:Viral Proteins
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