Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 Feb 7.
Published in final edited form as: J Theor Biol. 2018 Nov 28;462:514–527. doi: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2018.11.034

Table 5.

Summary of modeling strategies: advantages/disadvantages

Method Variables Time Advantages Disadvantages
Boolean networks 0 or 1 t = 0,1,2,… Easy to implement.
Easy to understand.		 No quantitative details.
ODEs Real positive numbers t = real number Quantitative details.
Predictive potential.
Powerful tools for simulation & analysis.		 Rate constants must be estimated from quantitative experimental data.
Stochastic Positive integers t = real number Effects of molecular noise in single cells.
SSA is an accurate, reliable simulation algorithm.		 Requires even more quantitative experimental data. Computationally intensive.
Hybrid Det/Stoch Real positive numbers t = real number Computationally efficient and sufficiently accurate. Not very ‘intuitive’. Partitioning must be done correctly.