Computers and computational methods play an increasingly important role in the life sciences, and currently form
an indispensable tool for a wide range of scientific applications. These range from classical bioinformatics, which
concerns with the use of computer methods in molecular biology, to numerical models of complex physiological
systems. To this date, these scientific fields have been fairly disconnected, but the situation is changing with the
increasing availability of high performance computing tools, which allows system physiology models to be developed
with more detail and realism. Existing computer models have already demonstrated direct links between gene data
and organ function, and the current development will inevitably narrow the gap between classical bioinformatics and
systems physiology modeling. The successful combination of these two fields holds a huge potential for scientific
progress, as it may represent a mechanistic link from knowledge and exploration on a molecular scale, to the function
of biological tissues, organs and organ systems. However, this large potential is paired with substantial challenges,
many of which are directly related to computer science. These include the management and integration of huge
data banks, computational resources required for solving complex multiscale mathematical models, and software
engineering issues related to development and validation of increasingly complicated software systems.