TY - JOUR A1 - Helfmann, Luzie A1 - Djurdjevac Conrad, Natasa A1 - Djurdjevac, Ana A1 - Winkelmann, Stefanie A1 - Schütte, Christof T1 - From interacting agents to density-based modeling with stochastic PDEs JF - Communications in Applied Mathematics and Computational Science N2 - Many real-world processes can naturally be modeled as systems of interacting agents. However, the long-term simulation of such agent-based models is often intractable when the system becomes too large. In this paper, starting from a stochastic spatio-temporal agent-based model (ABM), we present a reduced model in terms of stochastic PDEs that describes the evolution of agent number densities for large populations. We discuss the algorithmic details of both approaches; regarding the SPDE model, we apply Finite Element discretization in space which not only ensures efficient simulation but also serves as a regularization of the SPDE. Illustrative examples for the spreading of an innovation among agents are given and used for comparing ABM and SPDE models. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2140/camcos.2021.16.1 VL - 16 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 32 ER - TY - BOOK A1 - Winkelmann, Stefanie A1 - Schütte, Christof T1 - Stochastic Dynamics in Computational Biology T3 - Frontiers in Applied Dynamical Systems: Reviews and Tutorials Y1 - 2020 SN - 978-3-030-62386-9 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62387-6 VL - 8 PB - Springer International Publishing ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Winkelmann, Stefanie A1 - Zonker, Johannes A1 - Schütte, Christof A1 - Djurdjevac Conrad, Natasa T1 - Mathematical modeling of spatio-temporal population dynamics and application to epidemic spreading JF - Mathematical Biosciences N2 - Agent based models (ABMs) are a useful tool for modeling spatio-temporal population dynamics, where many details can be included in the model description. Their computational cost though is very high and for stochastic ABMs a lot of individual simulations are required to sample quantities of interest. Especially, large numbers of agents render the sampling infeasible. Model reduction to a metapopulation model leads to a significant gain in computational efficiency, while preserving important dynamical properties. Based on a precise mathematical description of spatio-temporal ABMs, we present two different metapopulation approaches (stochastic and piecewise deterministic) and discuss the approximation steps between the different models within this framework. Especially, we show how the stochastic metapopulation model results from a Galerkin projection of the underlying ABM onto a finite-dimensional ansatz space. Finally, we utilize our modeling framework to provide a conceptual model for the spreading of COVID-19 that can be scaled to real-world scenarios. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mbs.2021.108619 VL - 336 PB - Elsevier ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Straube, Arthur A1 - Winkelmann, Stefanie A1 - Schütte, Christof A1 - Höfling, Felix T1 - Stochastic pH oscillations in a model of the urea–urease reaction confined to lipid vesicles JF - J. Phys. Chem. Lett. N2 - The urea-urease clock reaction is a pH switch from acid to basic that can turn into a pH oscillator if it occurs inside a suitable open reactor. We numerically study the confinement of the reaction to lipid vesicles, which permit the exchange with an external reservoir by differential transport, enabling the recovery of the pH level and yielding a constant supply of urea molecules. For microscopically small vesicles, the discreteness of the number of molecules requires a stochastic treatment of the reaction dynamics. Our analysis shows that intrinsic noise induces a significant statistical variation of the oscillation period, which increases as the vesicles become smaller. The mean period, however, is found to be remarkably robust for vesicle sizes down to approximately 200 nm, but the periodicity of the rhythm is gradually destroyed for smaller vesicles. The observed oscillations are explained as a canard-like limit cycle that differs from the wide class of conventional feedback oscillators. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c03016 VL - 12 SP - 9888 EP - 9893 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Boltz, Horst-Holger A1 - Sirbu, Alexei A1 - Stelzer, Nina A1 - de Lanerolle, Primal A1 - Winkelmann, Stefanie A1 - Annibale, Paolo T1 - The Impact of Membrane Protein Diffusion on GPCR Signaling JF - Cells N2 - Spatiotemporal signal shaping in G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling is now a well-established and accepted notion to explain how signaling specificity can be achieved by a superfamily sharing only a handful of downstream second messengers. Dozens of Gs-coupled GPCR signals ultimately converge on the production of cAMP, a ubiquitous second messenger. This idea is almost always framed in terms of local concentrations, the differences in which are maintained by means of spatial separation. However, given the dynamic nature of the reaction-diffusion processes at hand, the dynamics, in particular the local diffusional properties of the receptors and their cognate G proteins, are also important. By combining some first principle considerations, simulated data, and experimental data of the receptors diffusing on the membranes of living cells, we offer a short perspective on the modulatory role of local membrane diffusion in regulating GPCR-mediated cell signaling. Our analysis points to a diffusion-limited regime where the effective production rate of activated G protein scales linearly with the receptor–G protein complex’s relative diffusion rate and to an interesting role played by the membrane geometry in modulating the efficiency of coupling Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/cells11101660 VL - 11 IS - 10 SP - 1660 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ernst, Ariane A1 - Schütte, Christof A1 - Sigrist, Stephan A1 - Winkelmann, Stefanie T1 - Variance of filtered signals: Characterization for linear reaction networks and application to neurotransmission dynamics JF - Mathematical Biosciences N2 - Neurotransmission at chemical synapses relies on the calcium-induced fusion of synaptic vesicles with the presynaptic membrane. The distance to the calcium channels determines the release probability and thereby the postsynaptic signal. Suitable models of the process need to capture both the mean and the variance observed in electrophysiological measurements of the postsynaptic current. In this work, we propose a method to directly compute the exact first- and second-order moments for signals generated by a linear reaction network under convolution with an impulse response function, rendering computationally expensive numerical simulations of the underlying stochastic counting process obsolete. We show that the autocorrelation of the process is central for the calculation of the filtered signal’s second-order moments, and derive a system of PDEs for the cross-correlation functions (including the autocorrelations) of linear reaction networks with time-dependent rates. Finally, we employ our method to efficiently compare different spatial coarse graining approaches for a specific model of synaptic vesicle fusion. Beyond the application to neurotransmission processes, the developed theory can be applied to any linear reaction system that produces a filtered stochastic signal. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mbs.2021.108760 VL - 343 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Ernst, Ariane A1 - Schütte, Christof A1 - Sigrist, Stephan A1 - Winkelmann, Stefanie T1 - Variance of filtered signals: Characterization for linear reaction networks and application to neurotransmission dynamics N2 - Neurotransmission at chemical synapses relies on the calcium-induced fusion of synaptic vesicles with the presynaptic membrane. The distance to the calcium channels determines the release probability and thereby the postsynaptic signal. Suitable models of the process need to capture both the mean and the variance observed in electrophysiological measurements of the postsynaptic current. In this work, we propose a method to directly compute the exact first- and second-order moments for signals generated by a linear reaction network under convolution with an impulse response function, rendering computationally expensive numerical simulations of the underlying stochastic counting process obsolete. We show that the autocorrelation of the process is central for the calculation of the filtered signal’s second-order moments, and derive a system of PDEs for the cross-correlation functions (including the autocorrelations) of linear reaction networks with time-dependent rates. Finally, we employ our method to efficiently compare different spatial coarse graining approaches for a specific model of synaptic vesicle fusion. Beyond the application to neurotransmission processes, the developed theory can be applied to any linear reaction system that produces a filtered stochastic signal. T3 - ZIB-Report - 21-15 KW - linear reaction networks KW - cross-correlation KW - neurotransmission Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-82674 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ernst, Ariane A1 - Falkenhagen, Undine A1 - Winkelmann, Stefanie T1 - Model reduction for calcium-induced vesicle fusion dynamics JF - Proceedings in Applied Mathematics & Mechanics N2 - In this work, we adapt an established model for the Ca2+-induced fusion dynamics of synaptic vesicles and employ a lumping method to reduce its complexity. In the reduced system, sequential Ca2+-binding steps are merged to a single releasable state, while keeping the important dependence of the reaction rates on the local Ca2+ concentration. We examine the feasibility of this model reduction for a representative stimulus train over the physiologically relevant site-channel distances. Our findings show that the approximation error is generally small and exhibits an interesting nonlinear and non-monotonic behavior where it vanishes for very low distances and is insignificant at intermediary distances. Furthermore, we give expressions for the reduced model’s reaction rates and suggest that our approach may be used to directly compute effective fusion rates for assessing the validity of a fusion model, thereby circumventing expensive simulations. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/pamm.202300184 VL - 23 IS - 4 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lücke, Marvin A1 - Heitzig, Jobst A1 - Koltai, Péter A1 - Molkethin, Nora A1 - Winkelmann, Stefanie T1 - Large population limits of Markov processes on random networks JF - Stochastic Processes and their Applications N2 - We consider time-continuous Markovian discrete-state dynamics on random networks of interacting agents and study the large population limit. The dynamics are projected onto low-dimensional collective variables given by the shares of each discrete state in the system, or in certain subsystems, and general conditions for the convergence of the collective variable dynamics to a mean-field ordinary differential equation are proved. We discuss the convergence to this mean-field limit for a continuous-time noisy version of the so-called "voter model" on Erdős-Rényi random graphs, on the stochastic block model, as well as on random regular graphs. Moreover, a heterogeneous population of agents is studied. For each of these types of interaction networks, we specify the convergence conditions in dependency on the corresponding model parameters. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spa.2023.09.007 VL - 166 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Straube, Arthur A1 - Winkelmann, Stefanie A1 - Höfling, Felix T1 - Accurate reduced models for the pH oscillations in the urea-urease reaction confined to giant lipid vesicles JF - The Journal of Physical Chemistry B N2 - This theoretical study concerns a pH oscillator based on the urea-urease reaction confined to giant lipid vesicles. Under suitable conditions, differential transport of urea and hydrogen ion across the unilamellar vesicle membrane periodically resets the pH clock that switches the system from acid to basic, resulting in self-sustained oscillations. We analyse the structure of the phase flow and of the limit cycle, which controls the dynamics for giant vesicles and dominates the pronouncedly stochastic oscillations in small vesicles of submicrometer size. To this end, we derive reduced models, which are amenable to analytic treatments that are complemented by numerical solutions, and obtain the period and amplitude of the oscillations as well as the parameter domain, where oscillatory behavior persists. We show that the accuracy of these predictions is highly sensitive to the employed reduction scheme. In particular, we suggest an accurate two-variable model and show its equivalence to a three-variable model that admits an interpretation in terms of a chemical reaction network. The faithful modeling of a single pH oscillator appears crucial for rationalizing experiments and understanding communication of vesicles and synchronization of rhythms. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.2c09092 VL - 127 IS - 13 SP - 2955 EP - 2967 ER -