grofit: Fitting Biological Growth Curves with R

Abstract

The grofit package was developed to fit many growth curves obtained under different conditions in order to derive a conclusive dose-response curve, for instance for a compound that potentially affects growth. grofit fits data to different parametric models and in addition provides a model free spline method to circumvent systematic errors that might occur within application of parametric methods. This amendment increases the reliability of the characteristic parameters (e.g.,lag phase, maximal growth rate, stationary phase) derived from a single growth curve. By relating obtained parameters to the respective condition (e.g.,concentration of a compound) a dose response curve can be derived that enables the calculation of descriptive pharma-/toxicological values like half maximum effective concentration (EC50). Bootstrap and cross-validation techniques are used for estimating confidence intervals of all derived parameters.