Computational Modeling of Glycan Processing in the Golgi for Investigating Changes in the Arrangements of Biosynthetic Enzymes

Modeling glycan biosynthesis is becoming increasingly important due to the far-reaching implications that glycosylation can exhibit, from pathologies to biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Here we describe a stochastic simulation approach, to overcome the deterministic nature of previous models, that aims to simulate the action of glycan modifying enzymes to produce a glycan profile. This is then coupled with an approximate Bayesian computation methodology to systematically fit to empirical data in order to determine which set of parameters adequately describes the organization of enzymes within the Golgi. The model is described in detail along with a proof of concept and therapeutic applications.