Epithelial Modelling Platform: A Tool for Model Discovery and Assembly with the Physiome Model Repository

Abstract

In this paper we present a web-based platform enabling scientists to construct a novel epithelial transport model to investigate their hypotheses, aided by building on existing models discovered in the Physiome Model Repository (PMR). We have comprehensively annotated a cohort of epithelial transport models deposited in the PMR as a seeding collection of building blocks that are freely available for reuse. On the platform, users are able to semantically display models for visualization, graphical editing, and model assembly. In addition, we leverage web services from the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) to help rank similar models based on the suggestions provided by the platform. In addition to potential use in biomedical and clinical research, novice modellers could use our platform as a learning tool. The source code and links to a live demonstration of the platform are available at https://github.com/dewancse/ epithelial-modelling-platform.