Probabilistic Boolean Networks: The Modeling and Control of Gene Regulatory Networks

The first comprehensive treatment of probabilistic Boolean networks (an important model class for studying genetic regulatory networks), this book covers basic model properties, including the relationships between network structure and dynamics, steady-state analysis, and relationships to other model classes. As the PBN model can serve as a mathematical framework for studying the basic issues of systems-based genomics, the book builds a rigorous mathematical foundation for exploring these issues, which include long-run dynamical properties and how these correspond to therapeutic goals; the effect of complexity on model inference and the resulting consequences of model uncertainty; altering network dynamics via structural intervention, such as perturbing gene logic; optimal control of regulatory networks over time; limitations imposed on the ability to achieve optimal control owing to model complexity; and the effects of asynchronicity. The authors unify different strands of current research and address emerging issues such as constrained control, greedy control, and asynchronicity. This is the first comprehensive treatment of probabilistic Boolean networks (PBNs), an important model class for studying genetic regulatory networks. This book covers basic model properties, including the relationships between network structure and dynamics, steady-state analysis, and relationships to other model classes. It also discusses the inference of model parameters from experimental data and control strategies for driving network behavior towards desirable states.

The PBN model is well suited to serve as a mathematical framework to study basic issues dealing with systems-based genomics, specifically, the relevant aspects of stochastic, nonlinear dynamical systems. The book builds a rigorous mathematical foundation for exploring these issues, which include long-run dynamical properties and how these correspond to therapeutic goals; the effect of complexity on model inference and the resulting consequences of model uncertainty; altering network dynamics via structural intervention, such as perturbing gene logic; optimal control of regulatory networks over time; limitations imposed on the ability to achieve optimal control owing to model complexity; and the effects of asynchronicity.

The authors attempt to unify different strands of current research and address emerging issues such as constrained control, greedy control, and asynchronicity.

Audience: Researchers in mathematics, computer science, and engineering are exposed to important applications in systems biology and presented with ample opportunities for developing new approaches and methods. The book is also appropriate for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and scientists working in the fields of computational biology, genomic signal processing, control and systems theory, and computer science.

Contents: Preface; Chapter 1: Boolean Networks; Chapter 2; Structure and Dynamics of Probabilistic Boolean Networks; Chapter 3: Inference of Model Structure; Chapter 4: Structural Intervention; Chapter 5: External Control; Chapter 6: Asynchronous Networks; Bibliography; Index