DockingShop: A Tool for Interactive Molecular Docking

Author(s): Lu, Ting-Cheng; Max, Nelson L.; Ding, Jinhui; Bethel, E. Wes; Crivelli, Silvia N. | Abstract: Given two independently determined molecular structures, the molecular docking problem predicts the bound association, or best fit between them, while allowing for conformational changes of the individual molecules during construction of a molecular complex. DockingShop is an integrated environment that permits interactive molecular docking by navigating a ligand or protein to an estimated binding site of a receptor with real-time graphical feedback of scoring factors as visual guides. Our program can be used to create initial configurations for a protein docking prediction process. Its output - the structure of a protein-ligand or protein-protein complex - may serve as an input for a protein docking algorithm, or an optimization process. This tool provides molecular graphics interfaces for structure modeling, interactive manipulation, navigation, optimization, and dynamic visualization to aid users steer the prediction process using their biological knowledge.