Replicating the MAP Kinase Cascade in Membrane Computing

Membrane Computing (MC) is defined as one of the main areas in computer sciences; MC has the aim of discovering novel computational models from studying biological cells, specifically the cellular membranes. Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases (MAPK) cascade was the subject of research in the areas of modeling and simulation. Various software tools such as Performance Evaluation Process Algebra (PEPA) have been used to solve the MAPK cascade for the purpose of improving the effectiveness of signaling. In this study, the MAPK cascade is modeled by using MC. The models of Membrane Computing could be totally fully utilized by applying parallel computing platforms. P-Lingua can be defined as a programming language for MeCoSim and MC, where MC simulators are used to model and simulate MAPK. P-Lingua will be applied to structure, develop and examine the implementation of MAPK cascades in membrane computing. MeCoSim supports charts, outputs, and inputs which have been adapted to MC. The simulation results have been put to comparison with PEPA model. The results indicate that MC improves the MAPK implementation compared to PEPA. This study showed that MC, with its biological characteristics, could improve the implementation regarding biological processes including MAPK. (paper)