Individual-based simulation of the clustering behaviour of epidermal growth factor receptors.

ABSTRACT

This paper describes ongoing work on a project to simulate the behaviour of epidermal growth factor receptors. These are structures which can be found on the surface of cells in the body, which receive and process chemical signals concerned with cell growth. We describe the implementation of a program which simulates the stimulation and clustering behaviour of these structures, discuss how we scale up this simulation so that we can simulate a whole cell on a tractable timescale, and discuss ongoing work in which we are calibrating our simulation against results from experiments.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.6 SIMULATION AND MODELING
      I.6.5 Model Development

Additional Classification:
  J. Computer Applications
  J.2 PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING
      Subjects: Chemistry
  J.3 LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
      Subjects: Biology and genetics

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Experimentation, Theory

Keywords:
computational biology, individual-based models, modelling, receptor biology, simulation