title: Modelling and simulation of signal transductions in an apoptosis pathway by using timed Petri nets.
abstract: This paper first presents basic Petri net components representing molecular interactions and mechanisms of signalling pathways, and introduces a method to construct a Petri net model of a signalling pathway with these components. Then a simulation method of determining the delay time of transitions, by using timed Petri nets - i.e. the time taken in fi ring of each transition - is proposed based on some simple principles that the number of tokens flowed into a place is equivalent to the number of tokens fl owed out. Finally, the availability of proposed method is confirmed by observing signalling transductions in biological pathways through simulation experiments of the apoptosis signalling pathways as an example.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Faculty of Education, Yamaguchi University, 1677-1 Yoshida, Yamaguchi 753-8511, Japan.
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Qi-Wei
authors.initials: QW
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.forename: Mitsuru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakata
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Matsuno
authors.forename: Satoru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Miyano
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D015398:Signal Transduction; D049490:Systems Biology / Q000379:methods*