A termination criterion for parameter estimation in stochastic models in systems biology

Parameter estimation procedures are a central aspect of modeling approaches in systems biology. They are often computationally expensive, especially when the models take stochasticity into account. Typically parameter estimation involves the iterative optimization of an objective function that describes how well the model fits some measured data with a certain set of parameter values. In order to limit the computational expenses it is therefore important to apply an adequate stopping criterion for the optimization process, so that the optimization continues at least until a reasonable fit is obtained, but not much longer. In the case of stochastic modeling, at least some parameter estimation schemes involve an objective function that is itself a random variable. This means that plain convergence tests are not a priori suitable as stopping criteria.This article suggests a termination criterion suited to optimization problems in parameter estimation arising from stochastic models in systems biology. The termination criterion is developed for optimization algorithms that involve populations of parameter sets, such as particle swarm or evolutionary algorithms. It is based on comparing the variance of the objective function over the whole population of parameter sets with the variance of repeated evaluations of the objective function at the best parameter set. The performance is demonstrated for several different algorithms. To test the termination criterion we choose polynomial test functions as well as systems biology models such as an Immigration-Death model and a bistable genetic toggle switch. The genetic toggle switch is an especially challenging test case as it shows a stochastic switching between two steady states which is qualitatively different from the model behavior in a deterministic model.