Abstract
Nowadays most of the software systems, tools, and applications in biomedical sciences are very complex and require high flexibility. Seemingly, it is difficult to identify a common underlying technology. In fact, each specific research field imposes its own constraints on the corresponding solutions. Nevertheless, at least from a software engineering perspective, the agent technology appears to fit the requirements imposed by such different research fields and encompasses most of the biomedical systems, tools, and applications in a unifying framework.