Differential algebra methods for the study of the structural identifiability of rational function state-space models in the biosciences

In this paper methods from differential algebra are used to study the struc tural identifiability of biological and pharmacokinetics models expressed i n state-space form and with a structure given by rational functions. The fo cus is on the examples presented and on the application of efficient, autom atic methods to test for structural identifiability for various input-outpu t experiments. Differential algebra methods are coupled with Grobner bases, Lie derivatives and the Taylor series expansion in order to obtain efficie nt algorithms. In particular, an upper bound on the number of derivatives n eeded for the Taylor series approach for a structural identifiability analy sis of rational function models is given. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. Al l rights reserved.