Partitioning of Compartmental Models in Biological Systems

Abstract Biological systems are often studied using compartmental models. The complexity of the resulting mathematical problems depends on the choice of a model and the number of compartments used. In many cases the model is restricted to a small number of compartments (2 or 3) so that the associated problems may become easy to solve. Development of techniques capable of reducing the cost of solving models with a large number of compartments certainly allows a much better understanding of the system under investigation: in this paper we show that partitioning in compartmental models may be used efficiently in this regard. Different schemes for partitioning based on different criteria are discussed. Ways to make the partitioning automatic, without any preinformation on the systems, are very desirable: some guidelines in this respect are also provided.