Efficient Solution Of An Inverse Problem In Cell Population Dynamics

In this paper, a size-structured model for cell division is examined and the question of determining the division (birth) rate from a measurable stable size distribution of the population is addressed. This inverse problem can be formulated as a differential-dilation equation. We propose a novel solution scheme based on mollification. The method of approximate inverse allows us to shift the derivative from the data to a precomputable reconstruction kernel. To comprise all available a priori information, a presmoothing step based on regression in reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces is introduced. We establish an error theory for the emerging algorithm, prove convergence and deduce a parameter strategy. The results are substantiated with extensive numerical tests both for artificial and real data based on proliferating tumor cells.