CCAM Software is produced by the faculty and staff of CCAM. Our flagship application, the Virtual Cell, serves as a National Resource for Cell Analysis and Modeling. The software below ranges from applications for analyzing FRAP and other image data, (Virtual FRAP Tool, Microfilament Detector, 5D Visualization MicroApp) to tools for generating models (BioNetGen, SyBiL) and model parameters (Gfit).
http://vcell.org
The Virtual Cell has been specifically designed to be a web-based research tool for a wide range of scientists, from experimental cell biologists to theoretical biophysicists. Likewise the creation of models can range from the simple, to evaluate hypotheses or to interpret experimental data, to complex multi-layered models used to probe the predicted behavior of complex, highly non-linear systems. Users can build complex models with a web-based Java interface to specify compartmental topology and geometry, molecular characteristics, and relevant interaction parameters. The Virtual Cell automatically converts the biological description into a corresponding mathematical system of ordinary and/or partial differential equations.
***Please Note, as of August 4, 2016, the download files have been updated. There is a minor bug fix in cluster size statistics.***
| SpringSaLaD mac.zip | SpringSaLaD linux.zip | SpringSaLaD win.zip |
SpringSaLaD is a particle-based, stochastic, biochemical simulation platform most suitable for modeling mesoscopic systems, which are far too large to be modeled with molecular dynamics but which require more detail than obtainable with macroscopic continuum models. In SpringSaLaD, molecules are modeled as a collection of impenetrable spheres (called “sites”) linked by stiff springs. The sites are intended to represent mesoscopic protein domains, such as an SH2 domain or a catalytic domain, and each site can be associated with a number of biochemical states, such as “active” or “inactive” for a catalytic domain. SpringSaLaD supports the full array of typical biochemical reactions: zeroeth-order reactions which model particle creation, a variety of first-order reactions such as particle decay, dissociation, and state transitions, and second-order reactions between sites for bonding reactions.
A good example a system which is best modeled with SpringSaLaD is ligand-mediated receptor clustering, where coarse-grained particle-level interactions are required but atom-level information is not of interest. In general, SpringSaLaD is best used to model mesoscopic particles (diameters of 1 – 10 nm, which could represent a functional protein domain), moderately sized systems (10 – 10,000 particles), and times scales on the order of 1 second, but no actual restriction is set on size or scale of the simulated system.
SpringSaLaD is available as JAR files for PC, Mac, and Linux. It includes a user-friendly GUI which supports all aspects of model creation, running simulations, and data analysis. The downloadable zip file also include a user’s guide and tutorial which walks the reader through a full example from model creation to data analysis.http://wiki.vcell.uchc.edu/twiki5/bin/view/VCell/MicroFilaments%20
Gfit is an open-access software tool for performing global analysis of large, heterogenous data sets. Global analysis performs simultaneous regression analysis for mutliple parameters in the biological system. The tools allows for researchers to rapidly evaluate the system model in relation to experimental data where the numerous data sets act to constrain the possible values obtained through global fitting. This tool and approach has been used successfully with Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy data and Surface Plasmon Resonance to study nuclear transport, transciption and DNA-protein interactions.
