Development of a macro-scale model from a meso-scale model for cell culture population dynamics

In this paper, we present a novel macro-scale analytical model that allows the prediction of how the population size will change in a cell culture starting from an arbitrary initial value. General biological knowledge and some empirical observations are used to design an agent-based discrete-time model at the meso-scale, which then serves as a simulation environment and provides the necessary insights for the development of the continuous-time, differential equation-based, compact macro-scale model. This model can be parameter-tuned and employed for predicting how the population size changes. The paper gives a procedure for the estimation of parameter values of the macro-scale model via some simple tests to be conducted on the cell culture at hand. The performance of the macro-scale model is validated via simulation results that show how well the macro-scale model captures the population dynamics as obtained from the meso-scale model, while the biological plausibility of the meso-scale model is taken for granted.