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Free energy calculations

The experiment is the limit

Free energy calculations have great potential to accelerate drug discovery projects by predicting relative protein–ligand binding affinities. But how accurate are these predictions and how accurate can they become? A recent report assesses the state of the art in such calculations and compares it to experimental approaches.

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Fig. 1: Comparing experimental and theoretical free energies of binding.

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Correspondence to Christina E. M. Schindler.

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Competing interests

C.E.M.S., D.K. and I.V.H. are employees of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.

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Schindler, C.E.M., Kuhn, D. & Hartung, I.V. The experiment is the limit. Nat Rev Chem 7, 752–753 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-023-00552-4

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