Digital models of organs, cells and subcellular structures have become important tools in biological and medical research.

Reaching far beyond their traditional widespread use as didactic tools, computer-generated models serve as electronic atlases to identify specific elements in complex patterns, and as analytical tools that reveal relationships between such pattern elements that would remain obscure in two-dimensional sections.

Digital models also offer the unique opportunity to store and display gene-expression patterns, and pilot studies have been made in several genetic model organisms, including mouse, Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans, to construct digital graphic databases intended as repositories for gene-expression data.

References

 Pereanu W, Hartenstein V. Digital three-dimensional models of Drosophila development. Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2004 Aug;14(4):382-91. PMID: #15261654#