Dizzy-Beats: a Bayesian evidence analysis tool for systems biology

Bioinformatics. 2015 Jun 1;31(11):1863-5. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btv062. Epub 2015 Jan 30.

Abstract

Motivation: Model selection and parameter inference are complex problems of long-standing interest in systems biology. Selecting between competing models arises commonly as underlying biochemical mechanisms are often not fully known, hence alternative models must be considered. Parameter inference yields important information on the extent to which the data and the model constrain parameter values.

Results: We report Dizzy-Beats, a graphical Java Bayesian evidence analysis tool implementing nested sampling - an algorithm yielding an estimate of the log of the Bayesian evidence Z and the moments of model parameters, thus addressing two outstanding challenges in systems modelling. A likelihood function based on the L1-norm is adopted as it is generically applicable to replicated time series data.

Availability and implementation: http://sourceforge.net/p/bayesevidence/home/Home/.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Bayes Theorem
  • Likelihood Functions
  • Models, Biological
  • Software*
  • Systems Biology*