Modeling Emergence in Neuroprotective Regulatory Networks
The use of predictive modeling in the analysis of gene expression data can greatly accelerate the pace of scientific discovery in biomedical research by enabling in silico experimentation to test disease triggers and potential drug therapies. Techniques that focus on modeling emergence, such as agent-based modeling and multi-agent simulations, are of particular interest as they support the discovery of pathways that may have never been observed in the past. Thus far, these techniques have been primarily applied at the multi-cellular level, or have focused on signaling and metabolic networks. We present an approach where emergence modeling is extended to regulatory networks and demonstrate its application to the discovery of neuroprotective pathways. An initial evaluation of the approach indicates that emergence modeling provides novel insights for the analysis of regulatory networks that can advance the discovery of acute treatments for stroke and other diseases.