Charmm-Gui Ligand Binder for Relative Binding Free Energy Calculations

Enhanced Ligand Sampling for Relative Protein–Ligand Binding Free Energy Calculations

Free energy calculations are used to study how strongly potential drug molecules interact with their target receptors. The accuracy of these calculations depends on the accuracy of the molecular dynamics (MD) force field as well as proper sampling of the major conformations of each molecule. However, proper sampling of ligand conformations can be difficult when there are large barriers separati...

Free energy calculations and ligand binding.

How To Deal with Multiple Binding Poses in Alchemical Relative Protein–Ligand Binding Free Energy Calculations

Recent advances in improved force fields and sampling methods have made it possible for the accurate calculation of protein–ligand binding free energies. Alchemical free energy perturbation (FEP) using an explicit solvent model is one of the most rigorous methods to calculate relative binding free energies. However, for cases where there are high energy barriers separating the relevant conforma...

Towards accurate free energy calculations in ligand protein-binding studies.

Cells contain a multitude of different chemical reaction paths running simultaneously and quite independently next to each other. This amazing feat is enabled by molecular recognition, the ability of biomolecules to form stable and specific complexes with each other and with their substrates. A better understanding of this process, i.e. of the kinetics, structures and thermodynamic properties o...

Is Ring Breaking Feasible in Relative Binding Free Energy Calculations?

Our interest is relative binding free energy (RBFE) calculations based on molecular simulations. These are promising tools for lead optimization in drug discovery, computing changes in binding free energy due to modifications of a lead compound. However, in the "alchemical" framework for RBFE calculations, some types of mutations have the potential to introduce error into the computed binding f...