Modeling Hormone-induced Calcium Oscillations in Liver Cell with Membrane Computing

The capability of membrane computing to deal with distributed and parallel computing models, allows it to characterize the structure and processes of biological systems. With this advantage, membrane computing provides an alternative modelling approach to conventional methods such as ordinary differential equations, primarily in preserving the discrete and nondeterministic behavior of biological reactions. This paper investigates the implementation of the framework for modelling and verification based on membrane computing with a biological process of hormone-induced calcium oscillations in liver cell. The biological requirements and properties of this process are formalized in membrane computing. The model of membrane computing is verified with the simulation strategy of Gillespie algorithm and the model checking approach of the Probabilistic Symbolic Model Checker. The results provided by the simulation and model checking approaches demonstrate that the fundamental properties of the biological process have been preserved by membrane computing model. The results have emphasized that membrane computing provides a better approach in accommodating the structure and processes of hormone-induced calcium oscillations compared to the approach of the ordinary differential equations. However other biological aspects such as the selection of parameters based on the stochastic behavior of biological processes have to be tackled to strengthen membrane computing competence in modelling biological processes. 64 R. C. Muniyandi, A. M. Zin Key-words: membrane computing; hormone induced calcium oscillations; Gillespie algorithm; PRISM.