PRAC - Ensembles of molecular dynamics engines for assessing force fields, conformational change, and free energies of proteins and nucleic acids

该项目使用AMBER程序套件中的计算机模拟方法来模拟蛋白质和核酸在其天然环境中的原子运动，以更好地了解各种生物分子之间的结构，动力学和相互作用。通过对所得数据的分析，模拟提供了对生物分子功能以及如何调节功能的见解。成功的关键是对生物分子的复杂构象分布进行足够的采样，以及使用基本原子相互作用或“力场”的准确表示。为了方便采样，该项目将独立模拟的集合耦合在一起，在CPU和GPU资源上并行优化，交换信息以提高采样效率。在Blue沃茨超级计算机上的初步工作已经证明了对RNA四核苷酸、四环RNA结构以及B-DNA螺旋的内部部分的构象分布的可再现的和完整的采样。通过完整的采样，现在可以可靠地评估、验证和改进所施加的力场。更广泛的影响集中在模拟方法和力场的改进上，被广泛的研究人员广泛用于从药物设计到破译结构-功能关系的应用中。通过开发、优化和应用温度和哈密顿空间中的多维副本交换方法，实现了构象采样效率的提高。AMBER分子动力学模拟代码非常优化，适合Blue沃茨上的GPU资源。在Blue沃茨上进行的初步模拟，将解决问题的时间从几个月-几年减少到几天-几周，表明尽管有可能收敛像RNA四核苷酸和四环这样的核酸的构象分布，但没有发现与实验完全一致的构象分布。换句话说，核酸的力场仍然存在严重的缺陷，这些缺陷正在被发现和克服，以改进模型。为了进一步探索溶液条件以外的核酸和蛋白质结构，还在室温晶体上进行模拟，这提供了评估和验证模拟方法的额外手段。更大和更有代表性的蛋白质和核酸结构也正在研究中。

This project uses computer simulation methods within the AMBER suite of programs to simulate the atomic motions of proteins and nucleic acids in their native environment to better understand the structure, dynamics and interactions among various bio-molecules. Through analysis of the resulting data, the simulations provide insight into biomolecular function and how to modulate function. Critical to success is adequate sampling of the complex conformational distributions of the biomolecules and also use of an accurate representation of the underlying atomic interactions or "force field". To facilitate sampling, the project couples together ensembles of independent simulations, optimized in parallel on CPU and GPU resources, that exchange information to increase sampling efficiency. Preliminary work on the Blue Waters Supercomputer has demonstrated reproducible and complete sampling of the conformational distributions of RNA tetranucleotides, tetraloop RNA structures, and also the internal portion of a B-DNA helix. With complete sampling, it is now possible to reliably assess, validate, and improve the applied force fields. Broader impacts center on the improvements in both the simulation methods and force fields, in wide use by a broad community of researchers in applications ranging from drug design to deciphering structure-function relationships.Increases in the efficiency of conformational sampling are realized by developing, optimizing and applying multi-dimensional replica exchange methods in temperature and Hamiltonian space. The AMBER molecular dynamics simulation codes are extremely well optimized and suited to the GPU resources on Blue Waters. Preliminary simulations on Blue Waters, reducing times to solution from months-years to days-weeks, show that although it is possible to converge the conformational distributions of nucleic acids like RNA tetranucleotides and tetraloops, one does not find conformational distributions that completely agree with experiments. In other words, there are still serious deficiencies in the force fields for nucleic acids that are being uncovered and overcome to improve the models. To further the exploration of nucleic acid and protein structures beyond solution conditions, simulations are additionally being performed on room temperature crystals which provide an additional means to assess and validate the simulation approaches. Larger and more representative protein and nucleic acid structures are also being investigated.