UQSA -- An R-Package for Uncertainty Quantification and Sensitivity Analysis for Biochemical Reaction Network Models

Abstract

We present an R-package developed for modeling of biochemical reaction networks, uncertainty quantification (UQ) and sensitivity analysis (SA). Estimating parameters and quantifying their uncertainty (and resulting prediction uncertainty), is required for data-driven systems biology modeling. Sampling methods need to be efficient when confronted with high-dimensional, correlated parameter distributions. We have developed the UQSA package to be fast for this problem class and work well with other tools for modelling. We aim for simplicity, and part of that is our use of the SBtab format for the unified storage of model and data. Our tool-set is modular enough, that parts can be replaced. We use intermediate formats that are not hidden from the user to make this feasible. UQ is performed through Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling in an Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) setting. This can be followed by a variance-decomposition based global sensitivity analysis. If needed, complex parameter distributions can be described, evaluated, and sampled from, with the help of Vine-copulas that are available in R. This approach is especially useful when new experimental data become available, and a previously calibrated model needs to be updated. Implementation: R is a high-level language and allows the use of sophisticated statistical methods. The ode solver we used is written in C (gsl_odeiv2, interface to R is ours). We use the SBtab tabular format for the model description, as well as the data and an event system to be able to model inputs frequently encountered in systems biology and neuroscience. The code has been tested on one node with 256 cores of a computing cluster, but smaller examples are included in the repository that can be run on a laptop. Source code: https://github.com/icpm-kth/uqsa