Mapping global sensitivity of cellular network dynamics: sensitivity heat maps and a global summation law

The dynamical systems arising from gene regulatory, signalling and metabolic networks are strongly nonlinear, have high-dimensional state spaces and depend on large numbers of parameters. Understanding the relation between the structure and the function for such systems is a considerable challenge. We need tools to identify key points of regulation, illuminate such issues as robustness and control and aid in the design of experiments. Here, I tackle this by developing new techniques for sensitivity analysis. In particular, I show how to globally analyse the sensitivity of a complex system by means of two new graphical objects: the sensitivity heat map and the parameter sensitivity spectrum. The approach to sensitivity analysis is global in the sense that it studies the variation in the whole of the model's solution rather than focusing on output variables one at a time, as in classical sensitivity analysis. This viewpoint relies on the discovery of local geometric rigidity for such systems, the mathematical insight that makes a practicable approach to such problems feasible for highly complex systems. In addition, we demonstrate a new summation theorem that substantially generalizes previous results for oscillatory and other dynamical phenomena. This theorem can be interpreted as a mathematical law stating the need for a balance between fragility and robustness in such systems.