Systems Biology Linker (Sybil) is a platform for the integration of BioPAX and SBML. It is part of the Virtual Cell but also a useful tool for any SBML and BioPAX integration, in other words for any one who wants to use BioPAX with an SBML-capable platform or vice versa. While Sybil can be used as an intelligent conversion tool between SBML and BioPAX, it is primarily intended for building a joint repository for SBML and BioPAX data, where links between SBML elements and BioPAX objects are maintained by SBPAX. Sybil uses SYBREAM for most of the intelligent work involved in building the SBML-SBPAX-BioPAX joint repository. Click here for a webstart.

Sybil is written in Java (but uses one non-Java library, libSBML, to work with SBML). For working with RDF/OWL data such as BioPAX or SBPAX data, Sybil employs Jena, a Semantic Web framework for Java, which supports manipulation of RDF/OWL data including ontology building, querying (including SPARQL) and reasoning. While part of Sybil's functionality is taylored to support current versions of BioPAX and SBPAX, other parts apply to more generic RDF/OWL data. This makes it possible to use Sybil with future versions of BioPAX or SBPAX with little adaption necessary, or even with no adaptions if future versions turn out to be sufficiently similar to current versions.

Sybil includes a viewer for BioPAX data which display the data as a graph with different nodes and edges representing objects of different classes or different properties. The viewer supports displaying different levels of detail by optionally hiding parts of the graph or collapsing groups of nodes or edges into a single node or edge. Hiding and collapsing can be based on preset options or user selections.

Sybil manages the building and maintanence of a SBML-SBPAX-BioPAX joint repository, using SYBREAM, which is implemented by running Jena's generic rule reasoner with the SYBREAM rule set.

There is also a page about Sybil on the Technology Centers for Networks and Pathways (TCNP) Wiki.