Network (mathematics) in the context of "Metabolic control analysis"

In biochemistry, metabolic control analysis (MCA) is a mathematical framework for describingmetabolic, signaling, and genetic pathways. MCA quantifies how variables, such as fluxes and species concentrations, depend on network parameters.In particular, it is able to describe how network-dependent properties,called control coefficients, depend on local properties called elasticities or elasticity coefficients.

MCA was originally developed to describe the control in metabolic pathwaysbut was subsequently extended to describe signaling and genetic networks. MCA has sometimes also been referred to as Metabolic Control Theory, but this terminology was rather strongly opposed by Henrik Kacser, one of the founders.