On the Calibration of a Size-Structured Population Model from Experimental Data

The aim of this work is twofold. First, we survey the techniques developed in (Perthame, Zubelli, 2007) and (Doumic, Perthame, Zubelli, 2008) to reconstruct the division (birth) rate from the cell volume distribution data in certain structured population models. Secondly, we implement such techniques on experimental cell volume distributions available in the literature so as to validate the theoretical and numerical results. As a proof of concept, we use the data reported in the classical work of Kubitschek [3] concerning Escherichia coli in vitro experiments measured by means of a Coulter transducer-multichannel analyzer system (Coulter Electronics, Inc., Hialeah, Fla, USA.) Despite the rather old measurement technology, the reconstructed division rates still display potentially useful biological features.