The University of Sheffield
Department of Computer Science

Lee Felton Undergraduate Dissertation 2005/06

"A stochastic model of gene expression incorporating transcriptional time delays."

Supervised by Professor NA Monk

Abstract

The production of transcripts has often been thought of as an instantaneous process. However, recent research has shown that within the process of transcription there is a relatively lengthy time delay. This has led to a recent surge in the amount of research papers trying to model this newfound knowledge. Furthermore, it is debatable as to whether any of these attempts has been fully successful, as the introduction of stochasticity into the process has provided a difficult obstacle to overcome. These models will be analysed in this project and indications as to the problems with them and ways in which they may be fixed will be discussed.

The ultimate aim is to produce a model that reduces the level of stochasticity in the system by varying the time-delays to correspond with those that occur in the biological process itself.