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Updated: May 15, 2026

The Importance of Correct Protein Concentration for Kinetics and Affinity Determination in Structure-function Analysis
Published on: March 17, 2010
Finite Element Estimation of Protein-Ligand Association Rates with Post-Encounter Effects: Applications to Calcium
P M Kekenes-Huskey1, A Gillette, J Hake
1Department of Pharmacology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla CA 92093.
Abstract:
We introduce a computational pipeline and suite of software tools for the approximation of diffusion-limited binding based on a recently developed theoretical framework. Our approach handles molecular geometries generated from high-resolution structural data and can account for active sites buried within the protein or behind gating mechanisms. Using tools from the FEniCS library and the APBS solver, we implement a numerical code for our method and study two Ca(2+)-binding proteins: Troponin C and the Sarcoplasmic Reticulum Ca(2+) ATPase (SERCA). We find that a combination of diffusional encounter and internal 'buried channel' descriptions provide superior descriptions of association rates, improving estimates by orders of magnitude.
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