The National Resource for Cell Analysis and Modeling, developer of the Virtual Cell, is a national resource center supported by the National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health. The Center for Biomedical Imaging Technology at the University of Connecticut Health Center is the home of the Virtual Cell.

The Virtual Cell is a general computational tool for modeling cell biological processes. This new technology associates biochemical and electrophysiological data describing individual reactions with experimental microscopic image data describing their subcellular locations. A transparent mathematics framework develops numerical simulations, and results can be analyzed as images.

The Computational Cell Biology computer codes were implemented in the Virtual Cell by Johann Cutiongco, under the direction of Les Loew.

To Use Computational Cell Biology Computer Codes with the Virtual Cell

1. Login to the Virtual Cell via the Virtual Cell web site, http://www.nrcam.uchc.edu/LocationVCellPortal.
2. Uncheck the "Private Only" item on the "View" menu. This will allow you to see and access all the public models.
3. The Computational Cell Biology models are listed under the username 'CompCell'. The models have cross-references to the corresponding figures in the text, in the "BioModel Summary" pane.
4. Single clicking on any model display a model summary in a separate pane that shows which Figure(s) in the book each model corresponds to.
5. Double clicking (or right clicking and choosing 'Open') on a model, loads that model into the workspace.
6. If you want to modify a model, copy it into your own account, make the changes, and run simulations.

For additional information contact Jim Schaff by email at schaff@neuron.uchc.edu or by phone at 860-679-2060.