Estimation of parameters of mycobacterium tuberculosis Growth: A multi-agent-based simulation approach

Abstract

The infectious disease Tuberculosis still causes many death around the world nowadays. The study of the bacillus that causes Tuberculosis, M. tuberculosis, is therefore very important. One special aspect to be studied is its growth. In this work we try a first attempt in estimating the parameters of a Multi-Agent-Based Simulation that can reproduce the growth of the real bacteria. In a previous work we have developed a Multi-Agent-Based Simulation and observed that the proper setting of parameters in order to reproduce the real behaviour of the growth is not a trivial task. Moreover, it is hard to tell if the adjustment of parameters is incorrect or if the model needs to be more detailed. Hence, in this work, we proceeded with the estimation of the parameters using a numerical method. The results are promising and show a very interesting venue for further research, both in terms of the growth behaviour as in the general aspects of modelling with Multi-Agent-Based Simulation.