The Smoldyn User Community

Smoldyn is an open research tool that anyone may use. Because Smoldyn can be downloaded without registering, we do not know how many people use it. However, we do have some sense, based on e-mails that users have sent us and web site statistics (available here). Two scientists used Smoldyn 5 years ago, probably about 10 people used it a year ago, and we estimate that several dozen people use it currently. To the best of our knowledge, most current users are computational and experimental biologists, although several biophysicists use Smoldyn as well. As we continue to improve the program and write papers on it (three are in progress), we hope that Smoldyn will be increasingly useful to more researchers. We also hope that it will find use as an educational tool.

Feedback from users is absolutely essential for continued Smoldyn development, so please do not hesitate to e-mail us (steven.s.andrews@gmail.com). A large fraction of the features that Smoldyn offers were added in response to requests from users, and we will continue to add requested features, as possible. Also, we like to know who our users are, so that we can target development to meet their needs, so we can tell them about releases, and because information about them can help us raise money for continued development.

Join the Development Team

Smoldyn has become sufficiently mature that there are plenty of roles for other contributors. These include: creating example configuration files, developing independent Smoldyn utility programs (such as wrl2smol and SmolCrowd), adding run-time commands to the program for simulation modification or observations, improving the user-interface, or adding to the simulation capabilities. If you are interested in joining the development team contact Steve Andrews

Developers

Steve Andrews - P.I. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Nathan Addy The Molecular Sciences Institute

Collaborators

Upi Bhalla - added the Smoldyn simulation core into the MOOSE program.

Funding

Smoldyn development has been funded by several research grants from the NIH, DOE, and NSF, although none were specifically targeted for Smoldyn. We are currently applying for, and very much hoping to get, an NIH grant that will support focused Smoldyn development over the next several years. If we get it, we will be able to continue supporting users, improving the user interface and adding major new features ( simulation support for cytoskeletal polymers is a major one). If not, then we may be passing a figurative hat - we will continue to add new features, but only if users come up with the funding for their development. Other funding offers or suggestions are very welcome as well, of course.