Pinning control applied to gene regulatory networks

A gene regulatory network is a set of genes, and gene products, which regulates a specific cell function. Gene regulatory networks modeling and simulation prove to be a powerful tool in studying gene regulated processes of living organisms. Tumour suppressor protein p53 is a key to control cellular functions, under stress or damage; it can activate commands for growth arrest or apoptosis. p53 is controlled by negative regulators such as Mdm2 and an indirect regulator (ARF). This paper applies pinning control to regulate the activity of p53-Mdm2 feedback loop for repairable and non-repairable damage; its core regulatory network is modeled by six ordinary differential equations, which take the most relevant processes into account. An illustrative example via simulations is included to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.