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Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 7, 813–819 (1 November 2006) | doi:10.1038/nrm2030

Linking data to models: data regression

Khuloud Jaqaman & Gaudenz Danuser

Mathematical models are an essential tool in systems biology, linking the behaviour of a system to the interactions between its components. Parameters in empirical mathematical models must be determined using experimental data, a process called regression. Because experimental data are noisy and incomplete, diagnostics that test the structural identifiability and validity of models and the significance and determinability of their parameters are needed to ensure that the proposed models are supported by the available data.