TorchANI-Amber: Bridging neural network potentials and classical biomolecular simulations
Preprint
- 25 August 2025
- preprint
- Published by American Chemical Society (ACS) in ChemRxiv
Abstract
In this work we introduce TorchANI-Amber, an interface for routine molecular dy- namics simulations of biomolecular systems using ANI-style machine learning poten- tials. TochANI-Amber incorporates the ANI neural network potentials into the Amber software suite, supporting Amber’s two engines: sander and pmemd. In addition to implementing all published ANI models, the interface is extensible to other energy predicting potentials through a simple mechanism requiring no knowledge of Amber’s codebase. To illustrate this versatility, we implement extensions to the AIMNet2 and Nutmeg potentials. The interface is integrated with Amber’s neighborlists, and it also supports an optimized CUDA implementation for computing the ANI models’ feature vectors, enabling simulations of systems with hundreds of thousands of atoms at the neural network’s level of theory (approaching DFT accuracy). The interface is designed so that all amber capabilities can be used with ANI potentials instead of force fields. To evaluate the energy conservation, stability, and performance of the ANI potentials as used through the interface, we run MD simulations on different biomolecular systems, including ubiquitin and Trp-cage proteins in explicit solvent. Additionally, we demon- strate the use of these potentials in the context of enhanced sampling techniques, such as temperature replica-exchange molecular dynamics.Keywords
All Related Versions
This publication has 63 references indexed in Scilit:
- Benchmarking general neural network potential ANI‐2x on aerosol nucleation molecular clustersInternational Journal of Quantum Chemistry, 2023
- General-Purpose Machine Learning Potentials Capturing Nonlocal Charge TransferAccounts of Chemical Research, 2021
- DeePMD-kit: A deep learning package for many-body potential energy representation and molecular dynamicsComputer Physics Communications, 2018
- PACKMOL: A package for building initial configurations for molecular dynamics simulationsJournal of Computational Chemistry, 2009
- A point‐charge force field for molecular mechanics simulations of proteins based on condensed‐phase quantum mechanical calculationsJournal of Computational Chemistry, 2003
- Replica-exchange molecular dynamics method for protein foldingChemical Physics Letters, 1999
- Parallel tempering algorithm for conformational studies of biological moleculesChemical Physics Letters, 1997
- Rattle: A “velocity” version of the shake algorithm for molecular dynamics calculationsJournal of Computational Physics, 1983
- Numerical integration of the cartesian equations of motion of a system with constraints: molecular dynamics of n-alkanesJournal of Computational Physics, 1977
- Die Berechnung optischer und elektrostatischer GitterpotentialeAnnalen der Physik, 1921