Reaction-agents: First mathematical validation of a multi-agent system for dynamical biochemical kinetics

Abstract

In the context of multi-agent simulation of biological complex systems, we present a reaction-agent model for biological chemical kinetics that enables interaction with the simulation during the execution. In a chemical reactor with no spatial dimension -e.g. a cell-, a reaction-agent represents an autonomous chemical reaction between several reactants : it reads the concentration of reactants, adapts its reaction speed, and modifies consequently the concentration of reaction products. This approach, where the simulation engine makes agents intervene in a chaotic and asynchronous way, is an alternative to the classical model -which is not relevant when the limits conditions change- based on differential systems. We establish formal proofs of convergence for our reaction-agent methods, generally quadratic. We illustrate our model with an example about the extrinsic pathway of blood coagulation. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.