Molecular Orbital Calculations For Biological Systems

Molecular Orbital Calculations for Biological Systems is a hands-on guide to computational quantum chemistry and its applications in organic chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology. With improvements in software, molecular modeling techniques are now becoming widely available; they are increasingly used to complement experimental results, saving significant amounts of lab time. Common applications include pharmaceutical research and development; for example, ab initio and semi-empirical methods are playing important roles in peptide investigations and in drug design. The opening chapters provide an introduction for the non-quantum chemist to the basic quantum chemistry methods, ab initio, semi-empirical, and density functionals, as well as to one of the main families of computer programs, the Gaussian series. The second part then describes current research which applies quantum chemistry methods to such biological systems as amino acids, peptides, and anti-cancer drugs. Throughout the authors seek to encourage biochemists to discover aspects of their own research which might benefit from computational work. They also show that the methods are accessible to researchers from a wide range of mathematical backgrounds. Combining concise introductions with practical advice, this volume will be an invaluable tool for research on biological systems.

This is a hands-on guide for the growing number of researchers in organic chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology who would like to augment their experiments with theoretical calculations. Given the current availability of sophisticated software, non-quantum chemistry practitioners can obtain accurate computational results and save significant amounts of laboratory time. This book teaches the use of quantum chemical computer programs while side-stepping the complex mathematical details.

Answering the need to facilitate quantum-chemical calculations of systems with thousands of atoms, Kazuo Kitaura and his coworkers developed the Fragment Molecular Orbital (FMO) method in 1999. Today, the FMO method can be applied to the study of whole proteins and protein-ligand interactions, and is extremely effective in calculating the propertie

This volume describes in detail the technique of molecular orbital calculations for biochemistry. The level of presentation will be accessible to biochemists, and biophysicists.

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.

Professor John D. Roberts published a highly readable book on Molecular Orbital Calculations directed toward chemists in 1962. That timely book is the model for this book. The audience this book is directed toward are senior undergraduate and beginning graduate students as well as practicing bench chemists who have a desire to develop conceptual tools for understanding chemical phenomena. Although, ab initio and more advanced semi-empirical MO methods are regarded as being more reliable than HMO in an absolute sense, there is good evidence that HMO provides reliable relative answers particularly when comparing related molecular species. Thus, HMO can be used to rationalize electronic structure in 1t-systems, aromaticity, and the shape use HMO to gain insight of simple molecular orbitals. Experimentalists still into subtle electronic interactions for interpretation of UV and photoelectron spectra. Herein, it will be shown that one can use graph theory to streamline their HMO computational efforts and to arrive at answers quickly without the aid of a group theory or a computer program of which the experimentalist has no understanding. The merging of mathematical graph theory with chemical theory is the formalization of what most chemists do in a more or less intuitive mode. Chemists currently use graphical images to embody chemical information in compact form which can be transformed into algebraical sets. Chemical graph theory provides simple descriptive interpretations of complicated quantum mechanical calculations and is, thereby, in-itself-by-itself an important discipline of study.

The Physical Basis of Biochemistry is a rigorous, imaginative textbook that applies physical and chemical principles to understanding the bi ology of cells. The book features numerous problem sets and examples, clear illustrations, and extensive appendices that provide additional information on mathematics, physics and chemistry topics that support the text. The Physical Basis of Biochemistry is suitable for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in physical biochemistry, biophysic al chemistry, and physical chemistry with application in the life scie nces. It will be welcomed by instructors seeking a text which combines a quantitative approach with a consistent biological perspective.