The FoldX web server: an online force field

TLDR

FoldX is an empirical force field developed for rapid evaluation of mutation effects on protein and nucleic acid stability, folding, and dynamics. The core functionality will be further extended as more FoldX applications are developed. The FoldX web server now publicly offers free‑energy calculations from high‑resolution structures, enabling protein stability assessment, proton positioning, water bridge and metal‑binding predictions, complex formation energy analysis, alanine scanning, and detailed interaction and quality reports.

Abstract

FoldX is an empirical force field that was developed for the rapid evaluation of the effect of mutations on the stability, folding and dynamics of proteins and nucleic acids. The core functionality of FoldX, namely the calculation of the free energy of a macromolecule based on its high-resolution 3D structure, is now publicly available through a web server at http://foldx.embl.de/. The current release allows the calculation of the stability of a protein, calculation of the positions of the protons and the prediction of water bridges, prediction of metal binding sites and the analysis of the free energy of complex formation. Alanine scanning, the systematic truncation of side chains to alanine, is also included. In addition, some reporting functions have been added, and it is now possible to print both the atomic interaction networks that constitute the protein, print the structural and energetic details of the interactions per atom or per residue, as well as generate a general quality report of the pdb structure. This core functionality will be further extended as more FoldX applications are developed.