Supervised Machine Learning for Bioelectrical Cellular Networks

1.Cells utilize bioelectricity to form networks as well as regulate and control a variety of processes such as apoptosis, tumor suppression, and voltage-gated ion channels. In-silico modeling of bioelectrical networks can be performed using BETSE, an application that models gap junctions and ion channel activity of networked cells, but its usage of matrix-based differential equations to estimate these properties limits simulations based on the amount of computational resources available. To alleviate this issue, we trained a total of 8 machine learning models to replace three core functions of BETSE, that is, 1) predicting the average transmembrane potential (Vmem) of an entire cellular network, 2) predicting the Vmem of each individual cell within the network, and finally, 3) predicting the average ion concentrations of sodium, potassium, chloride, and calcium within the cell network. For objective 1, the random forest model was shown to be most performant over all 4 scoring metrics, in objective 2 both the decision tree and k-nearest neighbors models scored best in half of all metrics, and for objective 3 the super learner, a meta-learner comprised of multiple base learners, scored best among all scoring metrics. Overall, these models provide a more resource efficient method of predicting properties of bioelectric cellular networks, and future work will include further properties such as temperature and pressure.