Last Post (adieu)

I finally got my program to complete one of goals of the simulation: to calculate the total cell number at a given time and the number of cells in each phase, specifically in S phase.

My program basically assumes that all cells take the same amount of time in each phase. I did not use a probability distribution or a coefficient of variation (CV) to take into account the variation of phase times, since I am not sure how to do that.

Here is a breakdown of my program:

Inputs:

• Number of cells initially
• Number of cells in G0, G1, S, G2, M
• Total cell cycle time
• Time in G1, S, G2, M
• Stop time
• Probability of cell in G0 entering cycle

Outputs:

• Total cell number at stop time
• Number of cells in G0, G1, S, G2, M 

I used a random number generator to determine whether or not a cell in the G0 phase would advance to the G1 phase and into the active cell cycle. The probability of this occurring is an input by the user. I used a probability of 0.5 for debugging. Since there were so many inputs and outputs, I decided to use File Input and Output, with the input parameters all in one file and the outputs all in another.

The hardest part was probably figuring how to calculate the total number of cells at the end of the simulation and making sure the cells in each phase added up to the total number. It was more complicated when I factored in G0 cells that entered the cell cycle, because G0 cells don’t divide, but once they enter the cycle, they do. It took many trial and error, but I got it eventually.

Overall, this project has been very interesting, and I learned that my programming skills need to improve by a lot in order to create a relatively accurate simulation!! But I had a great time and hope to get better J