title: A method for determining the robustness of bio-molecular oscillator models.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Quantifying the robustness of biochemical models is important both for determining the validity of a natural system model and for designing reliable and robust synthetic biochemical networks. Several tools have been proposed in the literature. Unfortunately, multiparameter robustness analysis suffers from computational limitations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A novel method for quantifying the robustness of oscillatory behavior to parameter perturbations is presented in this paper. This method relies on the combination of Hopf bifurcation and Routh-Hurwitz stability criterion, which is widely applied in control system design. The proposed method is employed to calculate the robustness of two oscillating biochemical network models previously analyzed in the literature. The robustness bounds here obtained are tighter than what was previously obtained in the literature for both models.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The method here proposed for quantifying the robustness of biochemical oscillator models is computationally less demanding than similar multiparamter variation techniques available in the literature. It also provides tighter bounds on two models previously analyzed in the literature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. ghaemi@umich.edu
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ghaemi
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Pablo A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Iglesias
authors.forename: Domitilla
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Del Vecchio
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001683:Biological Clocks / Q000502:physiology*; D001704:Biopolymers / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D008954:Models, Biological; D008956:Models, Chemical
chemical_list: D001704:Biopolymers