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Updated: Jul 15, 2025

Modeling an Enzyme Active Site using Molecular Visualization Freeware
Published on: December 25, 2021
UCSF ChimeraX: Tools for structure building and analysis
Elaine C Meng1, Thomas D Goddard1, Eric F Pettersen1
1Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
Abstract:
Advances in computational tools for atomic model building are leading to accurate models of large molecular assemblies seen in electron microscopy, often at challenging resolutions of 3-4 Å. We describe new methods in the UCSF ChimeraX molecular modeling package that take advantage of machine-learning structure predictions, provide likelihood-based fitting in maps, and compute per-residue scores to identify modeling errors. Additional model-building tools assist analysis of mutations, post-translational modifications, and interactions with ligands. We present the latest ChimeraX model-building capabilities, including several community-developed extensions. ChimeraX is available free of charge for noncommercial use at https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax.

