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STEPS: STochastic Engine for Pathway Simulation

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Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience
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Definition

STEPS is a molecular simulator with a focus on neuroscience applications, and so is designed to preserve and support important neuronal features such as complex morphology and electrical excitability. As such, STEPS simulates stochastic reaction-diffusion kinetics, 3D voltage calculations, ion channels, and membrane currents, all in tetrahedral mesh reconstructions of neuronal geometries. Since version 3.0, STEPS supports parallel solutions with proven scalability.

Detailed Description

Mesoscale Reaction-Diffusion Simulation in Tetrahedral Meshes

STEPS simulates stochastic molecular interactions, spatial concentration gradients, and diffusion. The category of reaction-diffusion simulators to which STEPS belongs are often termed “mesoscale” where molecules are not tracked individually but instead space is discretized into small subvolumes in which populations of molecules are tracked. The subvolumes that STEPS supports are tetrahedrons, which allow representation of complex...

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References

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Correspondence to Iain Hepburn .

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Hepburn, I. (2020). STEPS: STochastic Engine for Pathway Simulation. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_262-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_262-8

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  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-7320-6

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    STEPS: STochastic Engine for Pathway Simulation
    Published:
    11 January 2020

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_262-8

  2. Original

    STEPS: STochastic Engine for Pathway Simulation
    Published:
    01 March 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_262-7