virtual reconstruction of life

In my last post I pointed out a significant step forward in developing the mouse as a much more effective mammalian model organism. Progress in E. coli gives us an idea of where this is heading.

Not only have all E. coli genes been mutated for several years, but these mutant strains are under detailed investigation to discover the function of every gene. The next goal is to use this information in an attempt to reconstrruct a virtual living organism. This provides a detailed predictive model against which the results of experiments can be compared to identify flaws in our understanding of how a living organism functions. E. coli has been chosen because it is a simple organism, but it is obvious that the same poal will eventually be applied to the understanding of human biology. This modeling will require biologists with skills in maths and computing.

More detailed information can be found here.