Using information theory to derive an effective model of the Wnt cell-signaling pathway

ORAL

Abstract

Microscopically, biological signaling pathways, such as the Wnt pathway, can be very complex, involving a large number of bio-chemical reactions organized to perform specific cellular functions. This complexity is characterized by a large number of unknown parameters that remain unconstrained by experimental data. This complexity is furthermore a bottleneck to understanding the emergent mechanisms that drive the system's functionality. Recent work in information theory has shown that in spite of this complexity, most of the system's behavior is compressed into a small number of important (relevant) parameters. We use information theory to identify these parameters in a model of the Wnt signaling pathway and to derive an effective, simplified model of the system. We compare our results with other attempts to identify effective models from the literature.

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Authors

  • Dane Bjork

    None

  • John Colton

    Brigham Young University Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University, None, The College of William and Mary/Jefferson Lab, Brigham Young University-Idaho, Blue Ridge Research and Consulting LLC, Air Force Research Laboratory - Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Brigham Young Univ - Provo, Blue Ridge Research and Consulting, University of Utah, SRI International, Utah State University, Utah Valley University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Professor, Graduate, United States Air Force Academy, Arizona State Univ, SiO2 NanoTech, Entrepix Inc, AFRL, Advisor, Brigham Young University- Provo, University of New Mexico, Univ of Utah, University of Wisconsin -- Madison, New Mexico Tech Physics Dept., Retired, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, Department of Physics \& Astronomy, University of Hawai'i, JILA and University of Colorado, Boulder, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, University of Colorado, Boulder, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Space Dynamics Lab, New Mexico Tech, BYU Professor, Brigham Young University -- Provo, Northern Arizona University, University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado State University, University of Utah, Department of Physics, New Mexico State University