An adaptive genetic algorithm for parameter estimation of biological oscillator models to achieve target quantitative system response

Mathematical modeling has become an integral part of synthesizing gene regulatory networks. One of the common problems is the determination of parameters, which are a part of the model description. In the present work, we propose a customized genetic algorithm as a method to determine the parameters such that the underlying oscillatory system exhibits the target behavior. We propose a problem specific, adaptive fitness function evaluation and a method to quantify the effect of a single parameter on the system response. The properties of the algorithm are highlighted and confirmed on two test cases of synthetic biological oscillators.