期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2021
卷号：118
期号：6
页码：1
DOI：10.1073/pnas.2022753118
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：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.
