2 - The stochastic approach to biochemical kinetics

Abstract

Cell-scale chemical environments often feature small populations of chemical or biochemical species, from metabolites to macromolecules. Thus, the mathematical description of the time evolutions of such “small” systems often requires an explicit accounting for the discreteness of molecular populations and the randomness of chemical reaction. The stochastic approach to chemical kinetics fills this role in the modeling of biological systems, especially those with complex dynamics hinging upon the action of a handful of bimolecular entities. In this chapter, we formulate the stochastic approach and show how it relates to the deterministic approach.