SUMMARY: Looking for a Code to Solvate Molecules



Dear CCLers,
 two people ask me to present a summary of the responses to my question, so I'll
 do this with this email (answers are edited a little bit). Most people suggest
 to use BOSS or a related program, which is a full Monte Carlo package. Since I
 only need a "small tool", I decided to use the code of Marcel Swart,
 which
 seems to fit to my needs very well (hopefully, you don't get too many inquiries
 now that I sent it to the list, Marcel :-) ).
 Many thanks to  Stephen A. Decker,
                 Deepak Singh          for interest;
                 Willem P. van Hoorn,
                 Brian K. Peterson,
                 Daniel Severance,
                 Rick Venable,
                 David van der Spoel,
                 Marcel Swart          for providing answers!
 (in order of appearance in my mailbox; hopefully, I didn't forget anyone)
 Wibke Sudholt
 Institute of Theoretical Chemistry
 Heinrich-Heine-University
 Duesseldorf, Germany
 wibke (- at -) theochem.uni-duesseldorf.de
 ----------  Original Question  ----------
 Subject: CCL:Looking for a Code to Solvate Molecules
 Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 14:59:00 +0200
 From: Wibke Sudholt <wibke (- at -) theochem.uni-duesseldorf.de>
 Dear CCLers,
 I am looking for a program (preferably freeware Fortran code) which is capable
 of the following (or parts of it):
 * reads in the xyz coordinates of a solute molecule and reads in the xyz
 coordinates of an (arbitrary, not only water) solvent molecule
 * generates xyz coordinates of a cubic box filled with the solute molecule
 surrounded by some kind of random mixture of solvent molecules (needs not to
 be equilibrated or may have some order left)
 * controles the size of the system by density, box size, number of solvent
 molecules etc.
 I have checked the internet with no success, as most of such programs can only
 handle water or need predefined boxes filled with solvent molecules (programs
 which generate those would also be a help).
 Is anybody out there aware of such a program and willing to share his/her
 code/knowledge with me?
 Thank you very much in advance for your help
 Wibke Sudholt
 Institute of Theoretical Chemistry
 Heinrich-Heine-University
 Duesseldorf, Germany
 wibke (- at -) theochem.uni-duesseldorf.de
 ----------  Answer Message 1  ----------
 Subject: RE: Looking for a Code to Solvate Molecules
 Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 15:42:08 +0100
 From: Willem_Van_Hoorn (- at -) sandwich.pfizer.com
 BOSS by WL Jorgensen can do (almost all of) what you want, is written in
 F77, and is academic software:
 http://zarbi.chem.yale.edu
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Dr. Willem P van Hoorn     IPC 557
  Computational Chemistry    Phone: +44-1304-648470
  Pfizer Central Research    Fax  : +44-1304-658422
  Sandwich                   Willem_van_Hoorn (- at -) sandwich.pfizer.com
  Kent CT13 9NJ
  United Kingdom
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------  Answer Message 2  ----------
 Subject: RE: Looking for a Code to Solvate Molecules
 Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 10:59:00 -0400
 From: "PETERSON,BRIAN K." <PETERSBK (- at -) apci.com>
 Hi Wibke.  While you may find a solvation code, you might want to look at
 grand-canonical Monte Carlo codes.   While there are some efficiency
 problems with high density GCMC, for just preparing reasonably equilibrated
 systems for input into something else, they should work fine.  I use the
 Cerius2 sorption module for this.  One GCMC code available on the web is
 from Thanos Panagiotopoulos' group at:
 http://thera.umd.edu/jerring/gcmc/overview/overview.htm .
 brian peterson
 Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
 ----------  Answer Message 3  ----------
 Subject: RE: Looking for a Code to Solvate Molecules
 Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 09:33:18 -0700
 From: Daniel Severance <dseverance (- at -) acadia-pharm.com>
 Hi,
    The BOSS program from Bill Jorgensen at Yale does just what you want.
 You can specify
 your own solvents, and can do 2-part mixtures at least.  You do have control
 over the box size as well.
    It's not freeware, but he doesn't charge much for academic institutions.
 He can answer more specifically, since I've never used the solvent mixture
 options and thus haven't paid attention to any more recent changes he may
 have made.
    His e-mail address is bill (- at -) adrik.chem.yale.edu
    Good luck!
       Dan
 ----------  Answer Message 4  ----------
 Subject: Re: CCL:Looking for a Code to Solvate Molecules
 Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 13:38:57 -0400 (EDT)
 From: Rick Venable <rvenable (- at -) deimos.cber.nih.gov>
 I have some CHARMM scripts I've developed for solvating within any
 orthorhombic shape (square corners), which I can provide if you are
 interested in them.  I've also recently developed generalized scripts
 for adding ions to the resulting box, by replacing selected water
 molecules.
 Rick Venable                  =====\     |=|    "Eschew Obfuscation"
 FDA/CBER Biophysics Lab       |____/     |=|
 Bethesda, MD  U.S.A.          |   \    / |=|  ( Not an official statement or
 Rick_Venable (- at -) nih.gov          |    \  /  |=|    position of the FDA;
 for that,
 rvenable (- at -) speakeasy.org              \/   |=|    see   http://www.fda.gov  )
 ----------  Answer Message 5  ----------
 Subject: solvate
 Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 00:11:56 +0200 (CEST)
 From: David van der Spoel <spoel (- at -) xray.bmc.uu.se>
 Such a program "genbox" comes with the GROMACS set:
 http://md.chem.rug.nl/~gmx
 (and probably with many other MD packages).
 genbox supports rectangular and triclinic boxes (which basically means all
 periodic boxes) as well as nonperiodic systems (solvent layer). The type
 of solvent is determined by your input file, and can be any organic
 molecule, or mixture thereof.
 Groeten, David.
 ________________________________________________________________________
 Dr. David van der Spoel		Biomedical center, Dept. of Biochemistry
 s-mail:	Husargatan 3, Box 576,  75123 Uppsala, Sweden
 e-mail: spoel (- at -) xray.bmc.uu.se	www: http://zorn.bmc.uu.se/~spoel
 phone:	46 18 471 4205		fax: 46 18 511 755
 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 ----------  Answer Message 6  ----------
 Subject: Re: CCL:Looking for a Code to Solvate Molecules
 Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 12:01:42 +0200
 From: Marcel Swart <m.swart (- at -) chem.rug.nl>
 Hi Wibke,
 I've written a program which does just what you want:
 given a solvent molecule and a solute molecule,
 you have several options to fill several boxes at random with any
 given number of solvents/solutes.
 It is not on the Web yet, cuz I feel I have to improve a bit upon it,
 incl. Online manual etc., but I'd be happy to give you the source code.
 If you want, I can make a tar-file of the source code as it is now,
 and send this to you.
 Marcel.
 --
 ------------------------------------------------
 drs. Marcel Swart
 Theoretical Chemistry (MSC)
 Molecular Dynamics (GBB)
 Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
 Chemistry Department
 Nijenborgh 4
 9747 AG Groningen
 The Netherlands
 tel : +31 - (0)50 - 3634377
 fax : +31 - (0)50 - 3634441
 E-mail : m.swart (- at -) chem.rug.nl
 WWW: http://theochem.chem.rug.nl/~marcel/
 ------------------------------------------------