Estimating computational limits on theoretical descriptions of biological cells

There has been much success recently in theoretically simulating parts of complex biological systems on the molecular level, with the goal of first-principles modeling of whole cells. However, there is the question of whether such simulations can be performed because of the enormous complexity of cells. We establish approximate equations to estimate computation times required to simulate highly simplified models of cells by either molecular dynamics calculations or by solving molecular kinetic equations. Our equations place limits on the complexity of cells that can be theoretically understood with these two methods and provide a first step in developing what can be considered biological uncertainty relations for molecular models of cells. While a molecular kinetics description of the genetically simplest bacterial cell may indeed soon be possible, neither theoretical description for a multicellular system, such as the human brain, will be possible for many decades and may never be possible even with quantum computing.

Automated summary

Researchers have achieved success in theoretically simulating parts of biological systems on the molecular level, but there are doubts about the feasibility of modeling whole cells due to their complexity. They have established approximate equations to estimate computation times for simulating highly simplified cell models, setting limits on the complexity that can be understood theoretically. While a molecular kinetics description of simple bacterial cells may soon be possible, theoretical descriptions for multicellular systems like the human brain may not be achievable for many decades, if at all, even with quantum computing.