COMBOS2: an algorithm to the input–output equations of dynamic biosystems via Gaussian elimination

Abstract

Differential algebra (DA) methods are currently being exploited for analyzing dynamic biosystem models for their structural identifiability (SI) properties. An early step in this approach entails finding an equivalent input–output (I/O) model. A recent approach for finding these equations, based on Grbner bases and imbedded in the app COMBOS is relatively slow and sometimes unsuccessful, even for moderate size models. In this paper, we propose a faster algorithm, using a Gaussian elimination approach for analyzing the subclass of linear dynamic biosystem models. We apply this methodology to find the simplest set of globally SI parameter combinations of these models and show that it works effectively for linear biosystem models of simple to moderate complexity.