State machine modeling of MAPK signaling pathways.

Mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways are frequently deregulated in human cancers with potential involvement in most if not all cellular processes leading to tumorigenesis. Mathematical/computational models of MAPK signaling are indispensable to the study of pathway deregulation dynamics and their nonlinear effects on cell fate and carcinogenesis. A finite state machine model of MAPK cellular signaling is explored as an alternative to differential equations-based models of kinetics. The proposed approach is applied to the Ras-Extracellular signal-regulated kinase (Ras-ERK) pathway which includes the frequently mutated Ras and RAF proteins in many types of carcinomas.