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As the gap between the amount of data and the tools for analysis continues to grow, biologists are looking to mathematical modeling to turn data sets into biology. This is bad news for those who studied biology to avoid mathematics — but take heart, the tools are getting better and easier to use, and the best of them are now being used in some inspiring ways.

"One possible answer is the use of ontologies⎯strict rules for naming entities and their relationships⎯which are stirring up a lot of excitement in the field of computational biology and in modeling circles. Until recently, ontologies were deemed too poorly structured to allow computer-based reasoning, but a stream of continual improvements has now resulted in an impressive set of tools, such as the semantic web, open document format (ODF) and the ontology web language (OWL). Tom Plasterer, principal scientist at BG Medicine, thinks the semantic web could be ‘the next big thing’ in modeling. “Pharma has a lot invested in the federated approach,” says Plasterer. “However, if the semantic web gets picked up by the public databases and subsequently by Pharma, the return on investment for adopting this approach could be very attractive, due to much more efficient data and analysis integration both in-house and with partners."