US 9,542,641 B2 · Systems and methods for fault diagnosis in molecular networks

Abstract

The present disclosure provides advantageous systems and methods for identifying molecular vulnerabilities in biological pathways and networks. The present disclosure generally involves conceptualizing a disease/disorder at the molecular level as a faulty physiological system, wherein one or more molecules in the complex intracellular signaling network are dysfunctional. This is accomplished by modeling a given physiological system as a digital logic circuit. More particularly, in exemplarily embodiments, binary logic equations are derived by analyzing the interactions between the input and output nodes of a target biological system. These equations are then used to produce a digital circuit representation for the system. Once a digital circuit representation is created, this circuit may advantageously be analyzed, using fault analysis techniques, in order to determine the vulnerability levels of the molecules of the targeted system.

Claims55

Dependent claims

A method for determining vulnerabilities of a molecular network of a biological system, the method comprising:

(a) converting the molecular network of the biological system to a plurality of nodes including at least one input node, at least one output node, and at least one intermediate node between said input and output nodes, wherein each said node is a representation of a molecular entity within said biological system;
(b) identifying interactions between said nodes using relevant biological, physical or biochemical information;
(c) transforming the interactions identified in step (b) into at least one mathematical equation;
(d) assigning at least one fault model to said at least one mathematical equation;
(e) assigning a numerical value to at least one of said node(s) wherein said value indicates the vulnerability level of at least one of said node(s) for at least one pathological condition, by computing the response of at least one intermediate or output node mentioned in step (a);
(f) selecting at least one node having a computed vulnerability level according to step (e), as a target node and,
(g) treating said pathological condition by using said determined target node for drug development.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Systems and methods for fault diagnosis in molecular networks

Life of this patent

Systems and methods for fault diagnosis in molecular networks

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims55