A Process Calculus for Molecular Interaction Maps

We present the MIM calculus, a modeling formalism with a strong biological basis, which provides biologically-meaningful operators for representing the interaction capabilities of molecular species. The operators of the calculus are inspired by the reaction symbols used in Molecular Interaction Maps...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Roberto Barbuti, Andrea Maggiolo-Schettini, Paolo Milazzo, Giovanni Pardini, Aureliano Rama
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Open Publishing Association 2009-11-01
Series:Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science
Online Access:http://arxiv.org/pdf/0911.4854v1
Description
Summary:We present the MIM calculus, a modeling formalism with a strong biological basis, which provides biologically-meaningful operators for representing the interaction capabilities of molecular species. The operators of the calculus are inspired by the reaction symbols used in Molecular Interaction Maps (MIMs), a diagrammatic notation used by biologists. Models of the calculus can be easily derived from MIM diagrams, for which an unambiguous and executable interpretation is thus obtained. We give a formal definition of the syntax and semantics of the MIM calculus, and we study properties of the formalism. A case study is also presented to show the use of the calculus for modeling biomolecular networks.
ISSN:2075-2180