Timed modelling of gene networks with arbitrarily precise expression discretization

In this paper, a novel approach to discrete modeling of gene regulatory networks is presented. The approach is based on timed automata and is new in: (i) reflecting discrete abstraction of gene expression with arbitrary granularity, (ii) combining boolean logic with approximation of Hill kinetics. This is achieved by introducing delays that change dynamically with respect to current activity levels of regulating genes. The approach is implemented in UPPAAL and evaluated on benchmark models and on a biological case study.