Stochastic simulation and parameter estimation of first order chemical reactions

In this paper, we present fast stochastic simulation methods for the class of first order chemical reactions. The methods are based on the exact distributions for the number of molecules or their Gaussian approximations. Furthermore, using the adopted models, we develop parameter estimation methods for the reaction rates. Although we only discuss two basic reactions, the single channel and reversible first order reactions, the obtained results can be applied to more complex cases.