Bioinformatics Advance Access originally published online on January 19, 2007
Bioinformatics 2007 23(5):648-650; doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btl684
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APOPTO-CELL—a simulation tool and interactive database for analyzing cellular susceptibility to apoptosis


1Systems Biology Group, RCSI Research Institute, 2Department of Physiology and Medical Physics, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin 2, Ireland and 3Siemens Medical Division, Siemens Ireland, Dublin 2, Ireland
*To whom correspondence should be addressed.
| Abstract |
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We have developed a web service that provides a comprehensive analysis of the susceptibility of cells to undergo apoptosis in response to an activation of the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. Based on ordinary differential equations, (pre-determined) protein concentrations and release kinetics of mitochondrial pro-apoptotic factors, a network of 52 reactions and 19 reaction partners can be employed as a tool to display temporal protein profiles, to identify key regulatory proteins and to determine critical threshold concentrations required for the execution of apoptosis in HeLa cancer cells or other cell types. The web service also provides an interactive database function for the deposition of cell-type-specific quantitative data. In addition, the web service provides an output that can be compared directly to experimental results obtained from real-time single-cell experiments, making this a widely applicable systems biology tool for apoptosis and cancer researchers.
Availability: http://systemsbiology.rcsi.ie/apopto-cell.html
Contact: mrehm{at}rcsi.ie
Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
The authors wish it to be known that, in their opinion, the first two authors should be regarded as joint First Authors.
Received on December 13, 2006; revised on December 13, 2006; accepted on January 7, 2007