The human physiome as an information environment

Modern biology is rapidly laying the foundation necessary for integrated mo deling of physiological processes in living organisms. The human physiome p roject attempts to model interactions between biochemicals, cellular organe lles, cells, tissues, and organs within whole organisms. One of the first c hallenges that this project faces is the development of a database environm ent flexible enough to accommodate the diversity in structure and content o f physiological data. This paper reviews the current state of database tech nology, presents our understanding of the physiome database problem, and pr oposes a preliminary strategy for addressing it. (C) 2000 Biomedical Engine ering Society. [S0090-6964(00)01008-0].