Biosimulation is a computer-aided mathematical simulation of biological processes and systems and thus is an integral part of

systems biology Systems biology is the computational modeling, computational and mathematical analysis and modeling of complex biological systems. It is a biology-based interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on complex interactions within biological syst ...

. Due to the complexity of biological systems simplified models are often used, which should only be as complex as necessary. The aim of biosimulations is model-based prediction of the behaviour and the dynamics of biological systems e.g. the response of an organ or a single cell towards a chemical. However the quality of model-based predictions strongly depends on the quality of the model, which in turn is defined by the quality of the data and the profoundness of the knowledge.

Pharmacy

Biosimulation is becoming increasingly important for drug development. Since on average only 11% of all drug candidates are approved, it is anticipated that biosimulation may be the tool to predict whether a candidate drug will fail in the development process e.g. in

clinical trial Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel vaccines, drugs, dietar ...

s due to adverse side effects, bad pharmacokinetics or even toxicity. The early prediction if a drug will fail in animals or humans would be a key to reduce both drug development costs and the amount of required animal experiments and clinical trials. The latter is also in line with the so-called "3Rs" which refer to the principle of reduction and replacement of animal experiments as well as to the refinement of the methodology in cases where animal tests are still necessary. In a future scenario, biosimulation would change the way substances are tested, in which

in vivo Studies that are ''in vivo'' (Latin for "within the living"; often not italicized in English) are those in which the effects of various biological entities are tested on whole, living organisms or cells, usually animals, including humans, and ...

and

in vitro ''In vitro'' (meaning in glass, or ''in the glass'') studies are performed with microorganisms, cells, or biological molecules outside their normal biological context. Colloquially called "test-tube experiments", these studies in biology an ...

tests are substituted by tests

in silico In biology and other experimental sciences, an ''in silico'' experiment is one performed on computer or via computer simulation. The phrase is pseudo-Latin for 'in silicon' (correct la, in silicio), referring to silicon in computer chips. It ...

. Due to the importance of biosimulation in drug development a number of research projects exist which aim for simulating metabolism, toxicity, pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetics of a drug candidate. Some of the research projects are listed below: * BioSim project; funded by the 6th frame program of the European Unio

* NSR Physiome Projec

* Hepatosys Moreover, a few software tools already exist, which aim for predicting the toxicity of a substance or even try to simulate the virtual patient (Entelos). A few of these software tools are listed below: * COPAS

* runBiosimulation

* Telluriu

* Metabolism PhysioLab (Entelo

* GastroPlus and ADMEPredictor (Simulations-Plus

* Certara (previously Pharsight)'s computer assisted trial desig

* RHEDDOS (Rhenovia Pharma SA

* VirtualToxLab * Derek (Lhasa Limited) * Simcy

* DS TOPKAT (accelrys)
* ADME Workbenc

References

{{reflist, 30em Biosimulation, Systems biology