Taming the complexity of biological pathways through parallel computing

Biological systems are characterised by a large number of interacting entities whose dynamics is described by a number of reaction equations. Mathematical methods for modelling biological systems are mostly based on a centralised solution approach: the modelled system is described as a whole and the solution technique, normally the integration of a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) or the simulation of a stochastic model, is commonly computed in a centralised fashion. In recent times, research efforts moved towards the definition of parallel/ distributed algorithms as a means to tackle the complexity of biological models analysis. In this article, we present a survey on the progresses of such parallelisation efforts describing the most promising results so far obtained. © The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press.