A software package developed by a professor at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) and his colleagues to help researchers better understand the workings of biochemical networks now features an open source license, offering an ever wider range of benefits to its users.
In development for over a decade, COPASI (Complex Pathway Simulator) involves an international collaboration between VBI Professor Pedro Mendes' research groups at Virginia Tech and the University of Manchester and Professor Ursula Kummer's group at the University of Heidelberg. Allowing users with limited experience in mathematics to develop models and simulations of biochemical networks, COPASI supports the Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) standard for systems biology software and provides researchers the computational tools needed to investigate how a system is working through the construction of biochemical models. COPASI is also used by advanced modelers since it includes sophisticated algorithms. One of COPASI's main features is the ability to automatically adjust model parameters to reproduce experimental results, which helps to justify the validity of the chosen model.
COPASI has always been available through an open source format for individual users, but the software's new license agreement, which is approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI), allows commercial users to freely use the software. This enhanced availability is included with the release of the newest version (4.6.33) of the software.
"Through our new Artistic License 2.0 licensing scheme, everyone will have the opportunity to download and use future versions of COPASI free of charge," explains Stefan Hoops, VBI senior project manager and one of the technical leads of the project. "The new license is also compatible with more software libraries and other academic software programs, which will allow the development team to enhance the quality and functionality of COPASI. Third parti
'/>"/>
| Contact: Susan Bland subland@vbi.vt.edu 540-231-7912 Virginia Tech Source:Eurekalert |
Related biology news :
1. New Systems Biology Awards enable detailed study of microbes
2. ICSU launches new program to understand the human impact on Earths life-support systems
3. SAIC Awarded $37 Million Contract to Support U.S. Army Program Executive Office - Enterprise Information Systems
4. Kalyon wins Thomas Baron Award in Fluid-Particle Systems
5. Researchers apply systems biology and glycomics to study human inflammatory diseases
6. Complex systems and Mars missions help understand how life began
7. Systems biology brings hope of speeding up drug development
8. Carnegie Mellon developing automated systems to enable precision farming of apples, oranges
9. Toward a systems biology map of iron metabolism
10. Old and young brains rely on different systems to remember emotional content
11. Ocean acidification could have broad effects on marine ecosystems
| Copyright © 2003-2012 Bio-Medicine. All rights reserved. ABOUT | CONTACT US | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS AND CONDITIONS |  |