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Full-Text Articles in Cell and Developmental Biology

Stochastic Analysis Of A Mammalian Circadian Clock Model: Small Protein Number Effects, David W. Morgens, Blerta Shtylla Nov 2017

Stochastic Analysis Of A Mammalian Circadian Clock Model: Small Protein Number Effects, David W. Morgens, Blerta Shtylla

Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics

The circadian clock, responsible for coordinating organism function with daily and seasonal changes in the day-night cycle, is controlled by a complex protein network that constitutes a robust biochemical oscillator. Deterministic ordinary differential equation models have been used extensively to model the behavior of these central clocks. However, due to the small number of proteins involved in the circadian oscillations, mathematical models that track stochastic variations in the numbers of clock proteins may reveal more complex and biologically relevant behaviors. In this paper, we compare the response of a robust yet detailed deterministic model for the mammalian circadian clock with …


Examining The Electrical Excitation, Calcium Signaling, And Mechanical Contraction Cycle In A Heart Cell, Kristen Deetz, Nygel Foster, Darius Leftwich, Chad Meyer, Shalin Patel, Carlos Barajas, Matthias K. Gobbert, Zana Coulibaly Nov 2017

Examining The Electrical Excitation, Calcium Signaling, And Mechanical Contraction Cycle In A Heart Cell, Kristen Deetz, Nygel Foster, Darius Leftwich, Chad Meyer, Shalin Patel, Carlos Barajas, Matthias K. Gobbert, Zana Coulibaly

Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics

As the leading cause of death in the United States, heart disease has become a principal concern in modern society. Cardiac arrhythmias can be caused by a dysregulation of calcium dynamics in cardiomyocytes. Calcium dysregulation, however, is not yet fully understood and is not easily predicted; this provides motivation for the subsequent research. Excitation-contraction coupling (ECC) is the process through which cardiomyocytes undergo contraction from an action potential. Calcium induced calcium release (CICR) is the mechanism through which electrical excitation is coupled with mechanical contraction through calcium signaling. The study of the interplay between electrical excitation, calcium signaling, and mechanical …


Modeling And Analysis Of Germ Layer Formations Using Finite Dynamical Systems, Alexander Garza, Megan Eberle, Eric A. Eager Aug 2016

Modeling And Analysis Of Germ Layer Formations Using Finite Dynamical Systems, Alexander Garza, Megan Eberle, Eric A. Eager

Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics

The development of an embryo from a fertilised egg to a multicellular organism proceeds through numerous steps, with the formation of the three germ layers (endoderm, mesoderm, ectoderm) being one of the first. In this paper we study the mesendoderm (the tissue that collectively gives rise to both mesoderm and endoderm) gene regulatory network for two species, \textit{Xenopus laevis} and the axolotl (\textit{Ambystoma mexicanum}) using Boolean networks. We find that previously-established bistability found in these networks can be reproduced using this Boolean framework, provided that some assumptions used in previously-published differential equations models are relaxed. We conclude by discussing our …