Author(s)

Jehandad Khan

Date Approved

9-30-2014

Embargo Period

3-3-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S. Electrical and Computer Engineering

Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

College

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering

Advisor

Bouaynaya, Nidhal

Subject(s)

Gene regulatory networks; Kalman filtering

Disciplines

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Abstract

It is widely accepted that cellular requirements and environmental conditions dictate the architecture of genetic regulatory networks. Nonetheless, the status quo in regulatory network modeling and analysis assumes an invariant network topology over time. We refocus on a dynamic perspective of genetic networks, one that can uncover substantial topological changes in network structure during biological processes such as developmental growth and cancer progression. We propose a novel outlook on the inference of time-varying genetic networks, from a limited number of noisy observations, by formulating the networks estimation as a target tracking problem. Assuming linear dynamics, we formulate a constrained Kalman ltering framework, which recursively computes the minimum mean-square, sparse and stable estimate of the network connectivity at each time point. The sparsity constraint is enforced using the weighted l1-norm; and the stability constraint is incorporated using the Lyapounov stability condition. The proposed constrained Kalman lter is formulated to preserve the convex nature of the problem. The algorithm is applied to estimate the time-varying networks during the life cycle of the Drosophila Melanogaster (fruit fly).

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