欧洲分子生物学实验室下属的欧洲生物信息学研究所（EMBL-EBI），与遍布世界的30个实验室一起联合发布了一套用图表表示生物学信息的新标准。如同电子学中的电路图一样，该套标准图表的应用将会使生物学研究领域中复杂信息的交流更加容易，使模型变得准确、高效和容易理解。新标准称为系统生物学图释（SBGN），发表在近期出版的《自然·生物技术》杂志上。
标准化的图表，做为一种视觉语言，被广泛应用于多个学科领域。使用标准图表法传达复杂信息，表意清晰、易于理解。但在图表信息占据重要地位的生物学领域，却一直没有统一的标准图表描述所有的生物化学反应、路径和网络。
2005年，各国的研究人员开始努力开发一种专门用于分子和系统生物学研究的新图表标准，即SBGN项目。该项目由日本东京系统生物学研究所的北野宏明发起，英国辛克斯顿欧洲生物信息学研究所的尼古拉斯·勒·诺瓦克和美国加州理工学院的迈克尔·胡克负责协调。研究团队则包括生物化学家、模型制作人员和计算机科学家。
勒·诺瓦克指出，在基因组学时代，特别是高通量技术出现之后，生物学数据的规模总量有了大幅度增长，SBGN会使研究人员更容易了解彼此的模型，更有效地分享数据。它将使众多的系统生物学家从中受益，无论他们研究的重点是生化进程中的哪个环节。
为了确保新图表不会变得过于庞大、复杂，研究人员定义了三种不同类型的图解，互相补充，描述分子过程、实体关系和生化活动中的各个环节。报道称，SBGN十分简单，有众多研究团体的广泛参与，相信这种表示法将会迅速得到广泛的应用。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Nature Biotechnology 27, 735 - 741 (2009) 7 August 2009 | doi:10.1038/nbt.1558
The Systems Biology Graphical Notation
Nicolas Le Novère1, Michael Hucka2, Huaiyu Mi3, Stuart Moodie4, Falk Schreiber5,6, Anatoly Sorokin7, Emek Demir8, Katja Wegner9, Mirit I Aladjem10, Sarala M Wimalaratne11, Frank T Bergman12, Ralph Gauges13, Peter Ghazal4,14, Hideya Kawaji15, Lu Li1, Yukiko Matsuoka16, Alice Villéger17,18, Sarah E Boyd19, Laurence Calzone20, Melanie Courtot21, Ugur Dogrusoz22, Tom C Freeman14,23, Akira Funahashi24, Samik Ghosh16, Akiya Jouraku24, Sohyoung Kim10, Fedor Kolpakov25,26, Augustin Luna10, Sven Sahle13, Esther Schmidt1, Steven Watterson4,22, Guanming Wu27, Igor Goryanin4, Douglas B Kell18,28, Chris Sander8, Herbert Sauro12, Jacky L Snoep29, Kurt Kohn10 & Hiroaki Kitano16,30,31
Circuit diagrams and Unified Modeling Language diagrams are just two examples of standard visual languages that help accelerate work by promoting regularity, removing ambiguity and enabling software tool support for communication of complex information. Ironically, despite having one of the highest ratios of graphical to textual information, biology still lacks standard graphical notations. The recent deluge of biological knowledge makes addressing this deficit a pressing concern. Toward this goal, we present the Systems Biology Graphical Notation (SBGN), a visual language developed by a community of biochemists, modelers and computer scientists. SBGN consists of three complementary languages: process diagram, entity relationship diagram and activity flow diagram. Together they enable scientists to represent networks of biochemical interactions in a standard, unambiguous way. We believe that SBGN will foster efficient and accurate representation, visualization, storage, exchange and reuse of information on all kinds of biological knowledge, from gene regulation, to metabolism, to cellular signaling.
1 EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton, UK.
2 Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA.
3 SRI International, Menlo Park, California, USA.
4 Centre for Systems Biology at Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
5 Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Gatersleben, Germany.
6 Institute of Computer Science, University of Halle, Halle, Germany.
7 School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
8 Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center - Computational Biology Center, New York, NY, USA.
9 Science and Technology Research Institute, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK.
10 National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
11 Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
12 Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.
13 BIOQUANT, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
14 Division of Pathway Medicine, University of Edinburgh Medical School, Edinburgh, UK.
15 Riken OMICS Science Center, Yokohama City, Kanagawa, Japan.
16 The Systems Biology Institute, Tokyo, Japan.
17 School of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
18 Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre, Manchester, UK.
19 Clayton School of Information Technology, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
20 U900 INSERM, Paris Mines Tech, Institut Curie, Paris, France.
21 Terry Fox Laboratory, British Columbia Cancer Research Center, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
22 Bilkent Center for Bioinformatics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.
23 The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, UK.
24 Department of Biosciences and Informatics, Keio University, Hiyoshi, Kouhoku-ku, Yokohama, Japan.
25 Institute of Systems Biology, Novosibirsk, Russia.
26 Design Technological Institute of Digital Techniques SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia.
27 Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
28 School of Chemistry, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
29 Department of Biochemistry, Stellenbosch University, Matieland, South Africa.
30 Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Tokyo, Japan.
31 Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Okinawa, Japan.
