How to Perform SASA Analysis. From Geometry to Biological Function.

In this concise 30-minute tutorial, we demystify Solvent-Accessible Surface Area (SASA), a cornerstone metric in structural biology and computational biophysics. 🎯 What You’ll Learn: • Definition & Geometry: How SASA is calculated by rolling a 1.4 Å water probe over molecular surfaces. • Key Equation: The link between SASA and solvation free energy (ΔG = Σ σᵢ·SASAᵢ). • Practical Applications: – Predicting protein stability & folding pathways – Identifying ligand-binding hotspots in drug discovery – Analyzing conformational changes in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations 🛠️ Tools Covered: AmberTools (GPU-accelerated dSASA) 🔬 Why It Matters: SASA bridges molecular geometry and biological function, enabling faster drug design, protein engineering, and mechanistic insights—without running expensive explicit-solvent simulations. 📌 Perfect For: Students, researchers, and computational biologists seeking a clear, visual introduction to SASA analysis. 🔗 Resources: • GitHub code & scripts: [https://colab.research.google.com/git...] • Recommended reading: “Solvation Free Energy & SASA” (Nature Protocols, 2024) 👍 Like & Subscribe for more bite-sized tutorials on biophysical techniques! #SASA #Biophysics #MolecularDynamics #DrugDiscovery #StructuralBiology #ComputationalChemistry #ProteinEngineering