CBS Computational Biology Services

Time courses contain a lot of hidden information on the mechanisms underlining the processes under study. The usual analysis based on biological intuition and on the previous knowledge of the processes under study does not allow to extract all the information contained in time courses. But this biological intuition and knowledge can be used together with Computational Biology to set up a model of the main processes that determine the time course, and subsequently through the analysis of this model, the information hidden in the time course can be fully extracted. A difficulty when analysing time courses is that the steady-state approximation so common in biology cannot be applied to time courses and instead a dynamic analysis with integrated equations is needed. The equations obtained can be complex and often they cannot be linearized and non-linear fittings have to be preformed.

An example of CBS experience in the analyse of experimental time courses can be found in Chem. Res. Toxicol., 15, 870-876. The rate constant for the inhibition of lipid peroxidation by vitamin E was successfully estimated in LDL particles. With the help of Computational Biology, it was possible to achieve an accuracy in the experimental determination in this complex biological media similar to that usually achieved in simpler pure physical-chemical media.