Pharmacophore Modeling / Docking / Fragment-Based Design / Scaffold Replacement / R-Group Screening / Project Search / Protein-Ligand Interaction Fingerprints (PLIF)

This workshop explores advanced structure-based drug design (SBDD) workflows used in drug discovery projects. Participants will learn about key topics, including pharmacophore query generation, protein-ligand docking, scaffold replacement, and R-group screening. The session will cover the application of pharmacophore searching in drug design, as well as methods for querying 3D project databases. Additionally, participants will generate and analyze protein-ligand interaction fingerprints (PLIF) to support their design strategies.

Pharmacophore Modeling / Docking / Fragment-Based Design / Scaffold Replacement / R-Group Screening / Project Search / Protein-Ligand Interaction Fingerprints (PLIF)

This workshop explores advanced structure-based drug design (SBDD) workflows used in drug discovery projects. Participants will learn about key topics, including pharmacophore query generation, protein-ligand docking, scaffold replacement, and R-group screening. The session will cover the application of pharmacophore searching in drug design, as well as methods for querying 3D project databases. Additionally, participants will generate and analyze protein-ligand interaction fingerprints (PLIF) to support their design strategies.

Virtual screening compound libraries / Descriptors / Molecular Fingerprints / QSPR modeling / Database filtering / Pharmacophore modeling / Pharmacophore-guided docking / Template-based docking / Compound design

This workshop explores the suite of MOE applications for small-molecule virtual screening. Participants will learn to prepare small-molecule databases for screening, filter databases using substructure matching and property values, and build QSAR/QSPR models and fingerprint similarity models as screening filters. The session will cover creating and searching pharmacophore queries and performing small-molecule docking. A complete virtual screening workflow will be presented, including the creation of de novo structures using MOE’s Scaffold Replacement and Medchem transformation tools.

Protein Engineering / Protein Properties / Protein Contacts / Developability / Molecular surfaces / Hot spot analysis / Antibody modeling

This workshop focuses on structure-based antibody design. Topics such as protein-protein interaction analysis, in silico protein engineering, affinity modeling, and antibody homology modeling will be covered. Participants will explore an antibody-antigen co-crystallized complex by generating and examining molecular surfaces and visualizing protein-protein contacts in 3D. Antibody properties will be evaluated using specialized protein property descriptors and protein patch analysis. The session will also cover the application of protein engineering tools for affinity and property optimization in the context of antibody developability. Additionally, participants will learn to optimize antibody homology models, including identifying glycosylation sites and their selective modification using a specialized MOE Project antibody database. The full workflow for high-throughput antibody homology modeling, from sequence to structure to property calculations for developability analysis, will be demonstrated.

Alignments and superposition / Loop and linker modeling / Protein-Protein docking / Protein-Ligand Interaction Fingerprints (PLIFs) / Epitope analysis / Homology modeling / Solubility analysis / QSAR modeling / 2D hot spot mapping

This workshop covers essential methods for aligning protein sequences, superposing structures, loop modeling, building fusion protein models, and conducting protein-protein docking. Participants will learn techniques for grafting and refining antibody CDR loops, as well as using a knowledge-based approach to scFv fusion protein modeling with the Linker Modeler application. The session will also cover protein-protein docking of an antibody to an antigen and epitope mapping. Finally, the workshop will guide participants through a complete workflow for generating a QSAR model to predict and analyze protein/biologics solubility.

Protein-ligand interactions / Ligand optimization / Protein-ligand docking / Pharmacophore modeling / Template-based docking / High-throughput screening / Scaffold replacement / R-group exploration / Bioisosteric transformations / Ligand properties

This workshop presents common molecular modeling and design techniques for identifying, optimizing and prioritizing small-molecule drug candidates, using MOE. It covers structure preparation and pocket analysis followed by in situ modification. The workshop explains template-based docking (congeneric series) and pharmacophore-guide docking (preserving key interactions) to predict how small molecules bind to a protein target. It also covers advanced settings for achieving high-throughput docking for screening large databases. This workshop continues with a series of de novo fragment-based drug design applications. It focuses on scaffold hopping and fragment growing methods to generate novel compound ideas, optimize structures in the pocket, and score them. It also discusses the use of molecular descriptors and pharmacophore models to guide the drug design process. Finally, a method for generating closely related analogs through bioisosteric replacements is presented.

MOEsaic / Matched Molecular Pairs / R-group analysis / Similarity and substructure searching / Multi-parameter optimization / Free-Wilson analysis / Combinatorial Library Enumeration (CLE) / Multi-component reactions sketch / Reagent catalogs filtering

This workshop explores essential web-based methods for guiding drug discovery projects without a known protein structure. It examines SAR analysis through R-group profiling and matched molecular pairs (MMP) analysis, using MOEsaic to identify relationships within a chemical series. The session highlights computational strategies for extracting meaningful insights from structure-activity data to support informed decision-making in drug design. The workshop also introduces the CLE application as a powerful tool for streamlining the search of available reagent catalogs using multi-component chemical reactions. It demonstrates how to apply a reaction both as a query and as a transformation to efficiently enumerate all possible product combinations. The session covers methods for inspecting, filtering, and exporting reagents and products, including catalog IDs, for synthesis.

Scaffold replacement / Medicinal chemistry transformations / Fragment linking / R-group screening / Ligand growing / Pharmacophores / BREED / Fragment databases

This workshop focuses on fragment-based drug design tools in MOE. Participants will explore combinatorial fragment design and scaffold replacement in the receptor active site, along with strategies for fragment linking and growing. The session will also feature methods for generating closely related derivatives using medicinal chemistry transformations and the reaction-based combinatorial builder. Additionally, participants will learn to apply pharmacophores and 2D/3D descriptors to guide drug design processes.

Structure preparation / Non-natural amino acids / Protein Design / Conformational searching / Distance restraints / Peptide-Protein docking / Protein-Ligand Interaction Fingerprints (PLIFs)

This workshop focuses on methods for analyzing and optimizing peptide-protein interactions in the binding site. Participants will learn peptide-protein structure preparation, peptide sequence optimization using both natural and non-natural amino acids, and perform conformational analysis. Peptide-protein docking will be demonstrated, along with tools for analyzing protein-ligand interactions to assess contact points. Advanced conformational searching techniques using distance restraints will also be described.

Molecular surfaces and maps / Ligand interactions / Torsion Analysis / Ligand optimization / Capturing design ideas / Docking / Protein alignments and superposition

This workshop introduces MOE applications for interactive structure-based design. Participants will explore techniques such as active-site visualization, protein-ligand contact analysis, and ligand modification/optimization within the receptor pocket. Key milestones will be recorded using Capture, enabling review and sharing of design sessions with colleagues. The workshop will also cover the docking module and its application in assessing ligand flexibility. Additionally, a protocol for aligning and superposing protein complexes in the context of protein selectivity will be examined.