This series presents critical reviews of the present position and future trends in modern chemical research. It contains short and concise reports on chemistry, each written by the world renowned experts. This series remains valid and useful after 5 or 10 years. More information as well as the electronic version of the whole content available at: springerlink.com.

Over the past 40 years the field of molecular simulations has evolved from picosecond studies of isolated macromolecules in vacuum to studies of complex, chemically heterogeneous biological systems consisting of millions of atoms, with the simulation time scales spanning up to milliseconds. In Biomolecular Simulations: Methods and Protocols, expert researchers illustrate many of the methods commonly used in molecular modelling of biological systems, including methods for electronic structure calculations, classical molecular dynamics simulations and coarse-grained techniques. A selection of advanced techniques and recent methodological developments, which rarely find coverage in traditional textbooks, is also introduced. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include general introductions to well-established computational methodologies, applications to real-world biological systems, as well as practical tips and general protocols on carrying out biomolecular simulations. Special emphasis is placed on simulations of proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and carbohydrates. Authoritative and practical, Biomolecular Simulations: Methods and Protocols seeks to aid scientists in further simulation studies of biological systems.

Computational methods are transforming the work of chemical and pharmaceutical laboratories. Increasingly faster and more exact simulation algorithms have made quantum chemistry a valuable tool in the search for active substances. Written by a team of leading international quantum chemists, this book is aimed at both beginners as well as experienced users of quantum chemical methods. All commonly used quantum chemical methods are treated here, including Density Functional Theory, quantum and molecular mechanical approaches. Numerous examples illustrate the use of these methods for dealing with problems in pharmaceutical practice, whether the study of inhibitor binding, identifying the surface load of active substances or deriving molecular descriptors using quantum chemical tools. For anyone striving to stay ahead in this rapidly evolving field.

This book, a consecutive contribution to the series Challenges and Advances in Computational Chemistry and Physics, focuses on understanding the photoinduced processes in biological systems. Understanding and fine control of light fate in molecules is vital for the progress of society and environmental safety. Light induced changes of various physico-chemical and spectroscopic properties in nucleic acids and proteins is the basis of fundamental biological events such as vision, DNA photodamage or photosensing. The investigation of these processes is challenging to both theoretical and experimental studies. This volume encompasses the quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics theory in several subfields, including: advanced computational methods for nucleic acids and proteins systems; dynamics, spectroscopic and physico-chemical properties of biological photoreceptors; DNA photodamage. This book is of interest to readers in both fundamental and application-oriented research by overviewing recent achievements in computational modeling of excited states in nucleic acids and proteins.

Metallic systems are ubiquitous in daily life. They play key roles, for example, in the chemistry of many biomolecules, ionic solutions, nanoparticles, and catalytic processes. They may be in solid, liquid, or gaseous form. The interactions of other molecules with metal surfaces are of considerable importance. Each of these topics is addressed in M

Combined quantum mechanical and molecular mechanical methods (QM/MM) is one of the most promising approaches for quantum mechanical calculations of chemical processes in solution and in enzymes. This book provides an in-depth survey of the methods and applications of these combined techniques in chemistry and biochemistry.

Fragmentation: Toward Accurate Calculations on Complex Molecular Systems introduces the reader to the broad array of fragmentation and embedding methods that are currently available or under development to facilitate accurate calculations on large, complex systems such as proteins, polymers, liquids and nanoparticles. These methods work by subdividing a system into subunits, called fragments or subsystems or domains. Calculations are performed on each fragment and then the results are combined to predict properties for the whole system. Topics covered include: Fragmentation methods Embedding methods Explicitly correlated local electron correlation methods Fragment molecular orbital method Methods for treating large molecules This book is aimed at academic researchers who are interested in computational chemistry, computational biology, computational materials science and related fields, as well as graduate students in these fields.