What does this simulation show?

A flat 2D graph of signalling nodes (receptors and intracellular effectors) connected by pathway edges. Ligand binding raises a node's activity; once activity crosses a threshold the node fires, resets, and pushes activity into every node it is connected to, producing a spreading cascade.

How is this different from the 3D version?

Same update rule and same four controls — signalling nodes, pathway connectivity, ligand concentration and receptor sensitivity — but the network is drawn as a flat two-ring graph instead of a rotating 3D sphere, so every node and edge is visible at once without orbiting the camera.

What do the readouts mean?

Nodes firing/sec counts currently-active nodes, active pathway links is the edge count of the generated graph, total cascade events is a running count of every firing event since reset, and mean pathway activity is the network-wide average of each node's internal activity level.

Home▸Molecular Biology▸Cell Signalling Network Simulator (2D)

Cell Signalling Network Simulator (2D)

2D ligand-receptor signalling cascade: nodes bind ligand, decay, and fire once their activity crosses a threshold, relaying activity to every node they connect to across a flat pathway graph.

Molecular Biology2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

This 2D companion drives the same ligand-receptor update rule as the 3D version — each node's activity rises with stochastic ligand binding, decays over time, and fires once it crosses the receptor-sensitivity threshold, pushing activity into every connected neighbour — but lays the pathway graph out flat across two rings (outer receptors, inner effectors) instead of a rotating sphere, so the whole cascade is visible without orbiting the camera.

⚙ Under the hood

2D ligand-receptor signalling cascade on a flat pathway graph, with stochastic binding, activity decay and threshold-triggered firing that relays activity along every edge.

cell signallingligand-receptor bindingsignal transductionpathway networkcascadesystems biology

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install