Article

# Sloppy Models, Parameter Uncertainty, and the Role of Experimental Design

Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
(Impact Factor: 3.18). 10/2010; 6(10):1890-900. DOI: 10.1039/b918098b
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT Computational models are increasingly used to understand and predict complex biological phenomena. These models contain many unknown parameters, at least some of which are difficult to measure directly, and instead are estimated by fitting to time-course data. Previous work has suggested that even with precise data sets, many parameters are unknowable by trajectory measurements. We examined this question in the context of a pathway model of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and neuronal growth factor (NGF) signaling. Computationally, we examined a palette of experimental perturbations that included different doses of EGF and NGF as well as single and multiple gene knockdowns and overexpressions. While no single experiment could accurately estimate all of the parameters, experimental design methodology identified a set of five complementary experiments that could. These results suggest optimism for the prospects for calibrating even large models, that the success of parameter estimation is intimately linked to the experimental perturbations used, and that experimental design methodology is important for parameter fitting of biological models and likely for the accuracy that can be expected from them.

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• "). We point out that this is the premise invoked also in the context of Sloppy Models [35] [36] [37], whose behavior depends only on a few stiff combinations of parameters (accounted here by W and y), with many sloppy parameter directions largely unimportant for model predictions (accounted here by η z ). We also note here the fundamental difference with PCA decompositions which attain the same form as Equation(9). "
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ABSTRACT: This paper is concerned with a lesser-studied problem in the context of model-based, uncertainty quantification (UQ), that of optimization/design/control under uncertainty. The solution of such problems is hindered not only by the usual difficulties encountered in UQ tasks (e.g. the high computational cost of each forward simulation, the large number of random variables) but also by the need to solve a nonlinear optimization problem involving large numbers of design variables and potentially constraints. We propose a framework that is suitable for a large class of such problems and is based on the idea of recasting them as probabilistic inference tasks. To that end, we propose a Variational Bayesian (VB) formulation and an iterative VB-Expectation-Maximization scheme that is also capable of identifying a low-dimensional set of directions in the design space, along which, the objective exhibits the largest sensitivity. We demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach in the context of two numerical examples involving $\mathcal{O}(10^3)$ random and design variables. In all cases considered the cost of the computations in terms of calls to the forward model was of the order $\mathcal{O}(10^2)$. The accuracy of the approximations provided is assessed by appropriate information-theoretic metrics.
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• "The reduction is possible through an increase of complementary experiments and level of uncertainty (Apgar et al. 2010). This was demonstrated through a model database evaluation, where the number of identifiable parameters could be increased from 15 to 48 when the number of experiments increased from 1 to 20 and the level of parameter uncertainty from 0.7% to 2.3% (Fig. 4) (Apgar et al. 2010). Some researchers think that it is a consequence of outcome of sensitivity to a combination of parameters (Gutenkunst et al. 2007b). "
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Animal Production Science 10/2014; 54(11-12). DOI:10.1071/AN14568 · 1.03 Impact Factor
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• "New approaches to developing SEAMAPs will be needed to circumvent combinatorial explosion, particularly as larger genetic systems with many proteins are targeted for engineering. Notably, while system-level models describing protein interactions have several unknown parameters, model reduction and rule-based simulations can significantly reduce the number of equations, transitions, codependent variables, and insensitive constants (Conzelmann et al, 2008; Tran et al, 2008; Apgar et al, 2010; Sneddon et al, 2010). "
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Molecular Systems Biology 06/2014; 10(6):731. DOI:10.15252/msb.20134955 · 14.10 Impact Factor