The development and exchange of mathematical models usually requires several steps:
However, each of these steps is subject to human error.
To address the issue above, the group of Prof. Peter Hunter (Auckland, New Zealand) has specified a mark-up language, CellML, to support the definition and sharing of mathematical models through an XML-based language, and provide a consistent mathematical representation of a model through MathML.
Version 1.0 of the CellML specifications were released in August 2001. These specifcations were subsequently refined to support model evolution and re-use, and were released in February 2006 as version 1.1. The inherent nature of CellML means that CellML models are independent of the operating system or programming language used by the user, and model equations can be directly generated and published from the CellML code.
CellML on its own is of no use to modellers. Since the release of its specifications, we have witnessed the availability of various CellML tools. COR and OpenCell are two such tools, but their development has now been discontinued. They are being replaced by OpenCOR which can be seen as a merger of these two tools.