title: Modeling of coupled differential equations for cellular chemical signaling pathways: Implications for assay protocols utilized in cellular engineering.
abstract: Cellular engineering involves modification and control of cell properties, and requires an understanding of fundamentals and mechanisms of action for cellular derived product development. One of the keys to success in cellular engineering involves the quality and validity of results obtained from cell chemical signaling pathway assays. The accuracy of the assay data cannot be verified or assured if the effect of positive feedback, nonlinearities, and interrelationships between cell chemical signaling pathway elements are not understood, modeled, and simulated. Nonlinearities and positive feedback in the cell chemical signaling pathway can produce significant aberrations in assay data collection. Simulating the pathway can reveal potential instability problems that will affect assay results. A simulation, using an electrical analog for the coupled differential equations representing each segment of the pathway, provides an excellent tool for assay validation purposes. With this approach, voltages represent pathway enzyme concentrations and operational amplifier feedback resistance and input resistance values determine pathway gain and rate constants. The understanding provided by pathway modeling and simulation is strategically important in order to establish experimental controls for assay protocol structure, time frames specified between assays, and assay concentration variation limits; to ensure accuracy and reproducibility of results.
authors.forename: George D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: O'Clock
mesh_terms: D002454:Cell Differentiation; D060846:Cell Engineering; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005246:Feedback; D008954:Models, Biological; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D015398:Signal Transduction