title: Mathematical models in physiology.
abstract: Computational modelling of biological processes and systems has witnessed a remarkable development in recent years. The search-term (modelling OR modeling) yields over 58000 entries in PubMed, with more than 34000 since the year 2000: thus, almost two-thirds of papers appeared in the last 5-6 years, compared to only about one-third in the preceding 5-6 decades. The development is fuelled both by the continuously improving tools and techniques available for bio-mathematical modelling and by the increasing demand in quantitative assessment of element inter-relations in complex biological systems. This has given rise to a worldwide public domain effort to build a computational framework that provides a comprehensive theoretical representation of integrated biological function-the Physiome. The current and next issues of this journal are devoted to a small sub-set of this initiative and address biocomputation and modelling in physiology, illustrating the breadth and depth of experimental data-based model development in biological research from sub-cellular events to whole organ simulations.
authors.affiliation: Oxford University Computing Laboratory, Wolfson Building, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QD, UK. david.gavaghan@comlab.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gavaghan
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Garny
authors.forename: Philip K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Maini
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kohl
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D008433:Mathematics; D008954:Models, Biological; D010827:Physiology / Q000379:methods*; D049490:Systems Biology / Q000379:methods*