Balanced truncation for model reduction of biological oscillators

Model reduction is a central problem in mathematical biology. Reduced order models enable modeling of a biological system at different levels of complexity and the quantitative analysis of its properties, like sensitivity to parameter variations and resilience to exogenous perturbations. However, available model reduction methods often fail to capture a diverse range of nonlinear behaviors observed in biology, such as multistability and limit cycle oscillations. The paper addresses this need using differential analysis. This approach leads to a nonlinear enhancement of classical balanced truncation for biological systems whose behavior is not restricted to the stability of a single equilibrium. Numerical results suggest that the proposed framework may be relevant to the approximation of classical models of biological systems.