Quantifying Parameter Interdependence in Stochastic Discrete Models of Biochemical Systems

Abstract

Stochastic modeling of biochemical processes at the cellular level has been the subject of intense research in recent years. The Chemical Master Equation is a broadly utilized stochastic discrete model of such processes. Numerous important biochemical systems consist of many species subject to many reactions. As a result, their mathematical models depend on many parameters. In applications, some of the model parameters may be unknown, so their values need to be estimated from the experimental data. However, the problem of parameter value inference can be quite challenging, especially in the stochastic setting. To estimate accurately the values of a subset of parameters, the system should be sensitive with respect to variations in each of these parameters and they should not be correlated. In this paper, we propose a technique for detecting collinearity among models’ parameters and we apply this method for selecting subsets of parameters that can be estimated from the available data. The analysis relies on finite-difference sensitivity estimations and the singular value decomposition of the sensitivity matrix. We illustrated the advantages of the proposed method by successfully testing it on several models of biochemical systems of practical interest.