TITLE: “Stochastic Model and Optimization of SELEX.”
ABSTRACT: Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential enrichment (SELEX) is a process to select the best aptamer sequence in a huge aptamer library that binds a specified target molecule with the highest affinity. There has been a deterministic model of SELEX, and we develop a fully discrete stochastic model to obtain more accurate results when the mass action law does not hold. Specifically, we find that the optimal SELEX protocol in the stochastic model differs from that predicted by the deterministic model.