Abstract
Observed phenotypes usually arise from complex networks of interacting cell components. Qualitative information about the structure of these networks is often available, while quantitative information may be partial or absent. It is natural then to ask what, if anything, we can learn about the behaviour of the system solely from its qualitative structure. In this article we review some techniques which can be applied to answer this question, focussing in particular on approaches involving graphical representations of model structure. By applying these techniques to various cellular network examples, we discuss their strengths and limitations, and point to future research directions.
Acknowledgements
Nicole Radde acknowledges financial support from the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the Cluster of Excellence in Simulation Technology (EXC 310/1) at the University of Stuttgart. Murad Banaji's research is funded by EPSRC grant EP/D060982/1. The authors would like to thank Gheorghe Craciun and Frank Allgöwer for helpful suggestions during preparation of this article.