Abstract

The tau-leaping method is often effective for speeding up discrete stochastic simulation of chemically reacting systems. However, when fast reactions are involved, the speed-up for this method can be quite limited. One way to address this is to apply a stochastic quasi-steady state assumption. However we must be careful when using this assumption. If the fast subsystem cannot reach a steady distribution fast enough, the quasi-steady-state assumption will propagate error into the simulation. To avoid these errors, we propose to use the time dependent solution rather than the quasi-steady-state. Generally speaking, the time dependent solution is not easy to derive for an arbitrary network. However, for some common motifs we do have time dependent solutions. We derive the time dependent solutions for these motifs, and then show how they can be used with tau-leaping to achieve substantial speed-ups, including for a realistic model of blood coagulation. Although the method is complicated, we have automated it.