SBML Level 3: an extensible format for the exchange and reuse of biological models
Sarah Keating, Dagmar Waltemath, Matthias König, Fengkai Zhang, Andreas Dräger, Claudine Chaouiya, Frank Bergmann, Andrew Finney, Colin S. Gillespie, Tomáš Helikar, Stefan Hoops, Rahuman S. Malik‐Sheriff, Stuart Moodie, Ion I. Moraru, Chris J. Myers, Aurélien Naldi, Brett G. Olivier, Sven Sahle, James C. Schaff, Lucian P. Smith, Maciej J. Swat, Denis Thieffry, Leandro Watanabe, Darren J. Wilkinson, Michael L. Blinov, Kimberly Begley, James R. Faeder, Harold Gómez, Thomas M. Hamm, Yuichiro Inagaki, Wolfram Liebermeister, Allyson Lister, Daniel Lucio, Eric Mjolsness, Carole J. Proctor, Karthik Raman, Nicolás Rodríguez, Clifford A. Shaffer, Bruce E. Shapiro, Joerg Stelling, Neil Swainston, Naoki Tanimura, John Wagner, Martin Meier‐Schellersheim, Herbert M. Sauro, Bernhard Ø. Palsson, Hamid Bolouri, Hiroaki Kitano, Akira Funahashi, Henning Hermjakob, John C. Doyle, Michael Hucka, SBML Level 3 Community members, Richard R. Adams, Nicholas Allen, Bastian R. Angermann, Marco Antoniotti, Gary D. Bader, Jan Červený, Mélanie Courtot, Chris D. Cox, Piero Dalle Pezze, Emek Demir, William S. Denney, Harish Dharuri, Julien Dorier, Dirk Drasdo, Ali Ebrahim, Johannes Eichner, Johan Elf, Lukas Endler, Chris T. Evelo, Christoph Flamm, Ronan M. T. Fleming, Martina Fröhlich, Mihai Glont, Emanuel Gonçalves, Martin Golebiewski, Hovakim Grabski, Alex Gutteridge, Damon Hachmeister, Leonard A. Harris, Ben Heavner, Ron Henkel, William S. Hlavacek, Bin Hu, Daniel R. Hyduke, Hidde de Jong, Nick Juty, Peter D. Karp, Jonathan R Karr, Douglas B. Kell, Roland Keller, Ilya Kiselev, Steffen Klamt, Edda Klipp, Christian Knüpfer, Fedor Kolpakov, Falko Krause, Martina Kutmon
Abstract
Systems biology has experienced dramatic growth in the number, size, and complexity of computational models. To reproduce simulation results and reuse models, researchers must exchange unambiguous model descriptions. We review the latest edition of the Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML), a format designed for this purpose. A community of modelers and software authors developed SBML Level 3 over the past decade. Its modular form consists of a core suited to representing reaction-based models and packages that extend the core with features suited to other model types including constraint-based models, reaction-diffusion models, logical network models, and rule-based models. The format leverages two decades of SBML and a rich software ecosystem that transformed how systems biologists build and interact with models. More recently, the rise of multiscale models of whole cells and organs, and new data sources such as single-cell measurements and live imaging, has precipitated new ways of integrating data with models. We provide our perspectives on the challenges presented by these developments and how SBML Level 3 provides the foundation needed to support this evolution.