Applied Mathematics Seminar | Mercedes Perez Millan, Steady States of MESSI biological systems

Many processes within cells involve some kind of post-translational modification of proteins. We introduce here a general framework for biological systems that describe Modifications of type Enzyme-Substrate or Swap with Intermediates, which we call MESSI systems. There are many relevant examples of these systems in nature. Assuming mass-action kinetics, we simplify the study of steady states and conservation laws (inspired by [Feliu and Wiuf 2013, Thomson and Gunawardena 2009]). We also describe an important subclass of MESSI systems with toric steady states, that enables an algorithmic criterion for determining the capacity for multistationarity. This is joint work with Alicia Dickenstein.