Modeling and Analysis of Stochastic Reaction Kinetics in Biomolecular Systems

Chemical reactions in small-volume reactors such as biological cells are highly variable due to the stochastic collision events of the small number of molecules. To analyze and design these stochastic biomolecular reactions, computational tools have been developed based on rigorous mathematical foundations. This paper reviews fundamental theory and computational tools for the modeling, analysis, and design of stochastic biomolecular systems. Specifically, we first review the governing equation of the stochastic kinetics using the first principle modeling. Then, three computational approaches are introduced for simulating and/or analyzing the governing equation.