The Cardiac Electrophysiology Web Lab

The modelling of the electrophysiology of cardiac cells is one of the most mature areas of systems biology. This extended concentration of research effort brings with it new challenges, foremost among which is that of choosing which of these models is most suitable for addressing a particular scientific question. The Cardiac Electrophysiology Web Lab (link) is our online resource for the characterisation and comparison of electrophysiological cell models in a wide range of experimental scenarios. It uses a novel protocol language that allows us to separate the details of the mathematical model (the majority of cardiac cell models take the form of ordinary differential equations) from the experimental protocol being simulated. The current Web Lab allows users to store and compare the results of applying the same experimental protocol to competing models. Recent work aims to extend the Web Lab to support the process of model building from experimental data. This will bring us closer to our goal of facilitating a fully reproducible approach to the development of cardiac cell models.