Molecular Docking Pipeline

Overview

This skill provides a complete end-to-end molecular docking workflow covering every stage from raw protein structure to ranked, annotated binding poses. It integrates classical physics-based docking (AutoDock Vina) with modern deep-learning approaches (DiffDock), and includes protein-ligand interaction fingerprinting for downstream analysis.

Pipeline Stages:

1. Target Preparation -- Clean PDB structures, remove waters, add hydrogens, detect binding pockets
2. Ligand Preparation -- Convert SMILES to 3D, generate conformers, assign charges
3. Docking -- Run Vina or DiffDock to generate binding poses
4. Scoring & Interaction Analysis -- Identify hydrogen bonds, hydrophobic contacts, pi-stacking, salt bridges
5. Ranking -- Combine docking scores with interaction quality into a composite ranking

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when the user requests any of the following:

• "Dock this ligand to a protein" or "predict how a molecule binds"
• "Prepare a protein for docking" or "clean this PDB file"
• "Find binding pockets" or "detect active sites"
• "Run virtual screening against a compound library"
• "Score docked poses" or "analyze protein-ligand interactions"
• "Rank docking results" or "find the best binders"
• Any structure-based drug design task involving PDB files and small molecules
• Lead optimization where binding pose context is needed

Do NOT use this skill for:

• Binding affinity prediction (use MM/GBSA or free energy perturbation tools)
• Protein-protein docking (use HDOCK or ClusPro)
• Covalent docking (requires specialized workflows)
• Homology modeling (use AlphaFold or ESMFold first, then dock)

Related Skills

• diffdock: For DiffDock-specific deep learning docking with all configuration options. This pipeline skill already calls DiffDock internally.
• denovo-design: For generating novel molecules to dock. Combine with this skill for a complete design-dock workflow.
• admet-prediction: For filtering docking hits by ADMET properties before experimental testing.

Installation

Python version: Python 3.11 required. rdkit-pypi has no wheels for Python 3.12+. Create your venv with uv venv --python 3.11 or python3.11 -m venv .venv.

Required Dependencies

# Core (required for all stages) — pin numpy<2 for rdkit-pypi compatibility
pip install rdkit-pypi biopython "numpy<2" scipy

# PDBQT conversion — OpenBabel provides reliable Gasteiger charge computation.
# Recommended: install openbabel-wheel for best docking accuracy.
pip install openbabel-wheel

# Target preparation
pip install biopython

# Ligand preparation
pip install rdkit-pypi

# Docking -- Vina pathway
# Note: meeko 0.7.x requires rdkit >= 2023.x. If using rdkit-pypi 2022.9.5,
# install meeko 0.5.x instead: pip install "meeko<0.6"
pip install meeko vina

# Docking -- DiffDock pathway (optional, GPU recommended)
# See https://github.com/gcorso/DiffDock for installation

# Interaction analysis
pip install prolif

# Recommended extras
pip install pandas

Quick Verification

python -c "from rdkit import Chem; print('RDKit OK')"
python -c "from Bio.PDB import PDBParser; print('BioPython OK')"
python -c "from vina import Vina; print('Vina OK')"
python -c "import meeko; print('Meeko OK')"
python -c "import prolif; print('ProLIF OK')"
python -c "import shutil; print('OpenBabel:', 'OK' if shutil.which('obabel') else 'not found (fallback charges used)')"

Core Workflows

Workflow 1: Single Ligand Docking

Dock one ligand to one protein target from start to finish.

# Step 1: Prepare target
python scripts/prepare_target.py \
    --input protein.pdb \
    --output prepared_protein.pdb \
    --detect-pockets

# Step 2: Prepare ligand
python scripts/prepare_ligands.py \
    --input "CCO" \
    --output ligand.sdf

# Step 3: Dock
python scripts/dock.py \
    --protein prepared_protein.pdb \
    --ligand ligand.sdf \
    --output-dir docking_results/ \
    --method vina \
    --center_x 10.0 --center_y 20.0 --center_z 15.0

# Step 4: Score and analyze interactions
python scripts/score.py \
    --protein prepared_protein.pdb \
    --poses docking_results/poses.sdf \
    --output interactions.json

# Step 5: Rank
python scripts/rank.py \
    --scores docking_results/scores.csv \
    --interactions interactions.json \
    --output ranked_results.csv \
    --top-n 5

Workflow 2: Virtual Screening

Screen a library of compounds against a single target.

# Prepare target once
python scripts/prepare_target.py \
    --input target.pdb \
    --output prepared_target.pdb \
    --detect-pockets

# Prepare compound library (CSV with name,smiles columns)
python scripts/prepare_ligands.py \
    --input compounds.csv \
    --output library.sdf

# Dock entire library
python scripts/dock.py \
    --protein prepared_target.pdb \
    --ligand library.sdf \
    --output-dir vs_results/ \
    --method vina \
    --exhaustiveness 32 \
    --num-poses 5

# Score all results
python scripts/score.py \
    --protein prepared_target.pdb \
    --poses vs_results/poses.sdf \
    --output vs_interactions.json

# Rank and get top hits
python scripts/rank.py \
    --scores vs_results/scores.csv \
    --interactions vs_interactions.json \
    --output vs_ranked.csv \
    --top-n 20

Workflow 3: Rescoring Existing Poses

Rescore and re-rank poses from a previous docking run or from an external tool.

# Score existing poses
python scripts/score.py \
    --protein protein.pdb \
    --poses existing_poses.sdf \
    --output rescored.json

# Rank with interaction data
python scripts/rank.py \
    --scores original_scores.csv \
    --interactions rescored.json \
    --output reranked.csv

Workflow 4: Zero-Config Pipeline with Pocket Detection

Use --pockets or --auto-detect-pockets for automatic pocket-aware docking without manually specifying box coordinates.

# Option A: Use pre-computed pockets from pocket-detection skill
python ../pocket-detection/scripts/detect.py \
    --input protein.pdb --output pockets.json

python scripts/dock.py \
    --protein protein.pdb \
    --ligand ligand.sdf \
    --output-dir results/ \
    --pockets pockets.json

# Option B: Auto-detect pockets on the fly
python scripts/dock.py \
    --protein protein.pdb \
    --ligand ligand.sdf \
    --output-dir results/ \
    --auto-detect-pockets

Pocket discovery priority: --pockets flag > protein_pockets.json > pockets.json > druggability.json > auto-detect > geometric center.

Script Reference

Output Interpretation

Docking Scores (Vina)

• Score (kcal/mol): More negative = stronger predicted binding. Typical drug-like: -6 to -12 kcal/mol.
• RMSD Lower Bound: Deviation from the best pose. Poses with RMSD < 2.0 A from reference are considered accurate.
• Scores below -7.0 kcal/mol are generally considered promising hits.

Interaction Analysis

• Hydrogen Bonds: Distance < 3.5 A between donor-acceptor, angle > 120 degrees. Key for specificity.
• Hydrophobic Contacts: Non-polar atoms within 4.5 A. Contribute to binding entropy.
• Pi-Stacking: Aromatic ring centroids within 5.5 A, angle < 30 degrees (parallel) or > 60 degrees (T-shaped).
• Salt Bridges: Charged groups within 4.0 A. Strong electrostatic contribution.
• Halogen Bonds: C-X...Y angle ~165 degrees, distance < 3.5 A.

Composite Ranking

The ranking script combines docking score (normalized) with interaction quality metrics. A compound ranking highly should have both a favorable docking score AND meaningful protein-ligand interactions -- this reduces false positives from scoring function artifacts.

Pocket Detection

See references/pocket_detection.md for detailed guidance on interpreting detected pockets, druggability assessment, and manual pocket specification strategies.

Troubleshooting

• Vina fails with "atom type not found": Ensure the protein PDB has no exotic elements. Run prepare_target.py first.
• RDKit embedding fails: The SMILES may represent a molecule that is hard to embed in 3D. Try adding --ph 7.0 or check SMILES validity.
• DiffDock not found: DiffDock requires a separate installation with PyTorch Geometric. Fall back to --method vina.
• No pockets detected: The protein may lack a clear cavity. Provide manual coordinates via --center_x/y/z in the docking step.
• ProLIF import error: Install with pip install prolif. Requires RDKit and MDAnalysis.