Models in Making

Scientists have been using a range of technologies over the years to map out molecular interactions, networks and functions to help understand how our cells work. For example, mathematical and computational models have allowed many questions to be answered. In this area of research, the focus has now shifted to combining these separate technologies to develop a computational model that could ‘visualise’ an entire cell. Pictured is an initial model of Mycoplasma mycoides – a bacterium that has a simpler structure than a human cell. The model was created using biological software called cellPACK, which combines structural biology and data algorithms to produce 3D models. Such molecular cell models will help us to better understand diseases, how drugs work and how cells interact, shortening the road to new, improved therapies.

Written by Katie Panteli

Katie Panteli

Writer

Katie, a Warwick Biomed graduate, works for a science-publishing house in London with some of the world's most respected scientific minds. She's most interested in human biology, anything and everything that makes us tick.

• Image from work by Wonpil Im and colleagues
• Center for Computational Biology and Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA
• Reproduced with permission from Elsevier. Image copyright Elsevier 2016
• Published in Journal of Molecular Biology, July 2016