Gregory McCarthy

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  Student Presentation: Sensitivity Analysis of a Dynamical Systems Model of Gene Regulation in Drosophila Melanogaster
  Gregory McCarthy

  I am working with Jacqueline M. Dresch (Mathematics, Amherst College) and Robert A. Drewell (Biology, Amherst and Mount Holyoke Colleges) on parameter sensitivity analysis of a dynamic model of eukaryotic gene regulation in the Drosophila embryo. I am primarily concerned with understanding the relative importance of various components of the system, such as transcription and translation, as well as the biological and mathematical interpretations of. I performed sensitivity analysis on a model with initial inputs corresponding to both maternal genes and housekeeping genes in Drosophila melanogaster at various points across the anterior-posterior axis of the embryo as well as at various time points during early development. I compared my individual parameter sensitivities to values found experimentally in the study conducted by Li et. al. (PeerJ, 2014) and considered how these sensitivities change spatially and temporally during development. I found that the calculated parameter sensitivities on a simplified version of the reaction-diffusion model developed in Dresch et. al. (SIAM J. Appl. Math, 2013) are in agreement with those generated by the biological experiments of Li et al. As such, this appears to be a valid model to use for dynamic gene regulation. Additionally, the sensitivities for all genes considered exhibit competitive dynamic behavior across the development window. This suggests the importance of considering a dynamic model of gene regulation.