AquaGen用生成模型高效模拟上千原子的分子构型,比传统分子动力学快4-10倍。
AquaGen: Scaling generative models to molecular dynamics precision on thousands of atoms

- 基于全原子显式溶剂的生成模型,直接从玻尔兹曼分布采样
- 在水合自由能计算上速度提升4-10倍,精度与GPU-MD相当
- 适合需要可解释性和不确定性估计的药物分子性质预测
我们提出AquaGen,首个支持全原子、显式溶剂和周期性边界条件的生成模型,能以远低于分子动力学(MD)的成本生成符合玻尔兹曼分布的分子构型。相比现有生成模型常采用粗粒化、真空或隐式溶剂系统,本方法保留了完整自由度,支持力场能量评估和后续MD模拟,可通过生成样本的势能平均实现灰箱性质预测。我们在绝对水合自由能(AHFE)任务上验证其有效性,生成速度比标准GPU-MD快4-10倍,精度相当。通过从变分玻尔兹曼分布生成不相关样本,获得更准确、可解释且可优化的集合预测,并具备校准的不确定性估计;而回归方法为黑箱预测。该方法在训练和推理时均可通过扩大模型规模和增加样本数获得可预测的性能提升。我们认为该范式为自由能估算提供了高分辨率集合生成新路径,未来有望取代MD用于脂溶性、膜渗透性或绝对结合自由能(ABFE)等关键药物与材料设计任务。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
We present AquaGen, the first all-atom, explicit solvent, periodic-boundary-condition-aware generative model that produces molecular configurations from the Boltzmann distribution at a fraction of the cost of molecular dynamics (MD). This is in contrast with existing generative models that remove degrees of freedom by operating on coarse-grained, vacuum, or implicit solvent systems. Operating at this resolution allows for post-processing through force field energy evaluations and MD simulations, and enables the prediction of relevant properties in a gray-box manner (as ensemble averages of potential energy evaluations over generated samples). We demonstrate the utility of this paradigm on absolute hydration free energy (AHFE), producing estimates 4-10x faster and with comparable accuracy to standard GPU-based MD. By generating uncorrelated samples from alchemical Boltzmann distributions, we create more accurate, interpretable, and refinable ensemble predictions with calibrated uncertainty estimates, unlike regression methods which are entirely black-box predictors. Our approach also yields predictable benefits from increasing train- and test-time compute, realized by scaling model size and generating more samples, respectively. We believe that this approach demonstrates the utility of high-resolution ensemble generation for free energy estimation, with future potential to replace MD in tasks such as the prediction of lipophilicity, membrane permeability, or absolute binding free energy (ABFE) -- whose grounding and interpretability may be critical for the development of new drugs and materials.
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