Development of a virtual reality platform for effective communication of structural data in drug discovery

Publication date: Available online 12 March 2019Source: Journal of Molecular Graphics and ModellingAuthor(s): Laura J. Kingsley, Vincent Brunet, Gerald Lelais, Steve McCloskey, Kelly Milliken, Edgardo Leija, Stephen R. Fuhs, Kai Wang, Edward Zhou, Glen SpraggonAbstractIn drug discovery, structural knowledge of a target enables structure-based design approaches and thereby reduces the time and labor required to develop a therapy. Whilst molecular graphics frameworks coupled with computational analysis are now ubiquitous tools for the structural and computational biologist, sharing the detailed visualization and derived structural information with non-expert users still presents a challenge. Here we describe an intuitive virtual world for viewing, manipulating, and modifying chemical and macromolecular structures in a fully immersive and collaborative 3D environment. By reducing the barriers to viewing and interacting with structural data, structural analysis can be democratized to a general scientist, which in turn fosters novel collaboration, ideas, and findings in structural biology and structure-based drug discovery.Graphical abstract
Source: Journal of Molecular Graphics and Modelling - Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research