Why biology is hard to simulate: universally sloppy parameter sensitivities, per classic PLOS paper
rbhar90 · x · 2026-10-26
Reposting @genologos: biology is hard to simulate because it's difficult to know which parameters matter — many can vary by orders of magnitude with little effect on predictions, and the ones needing precise measurement aren't always easy to measure.
The attached screenshot references the classic paper "Universally Sloppy Parameter Sensitivities in Systems Biology Models" (Gutenkunst et al., PLOS Comput Biol 2007): every model examined shows a sloppy sensitivity spectrum with eigenvalues spread over many decades; even large ideal time-series datasets leave many parameters poorly constrained, so modelers should focus on predictions rather than parameters.
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