ABSTRACT
Maxwell’s equations describe the properties of electric and magnetic elds, a nd have been a nalytically solved for some si mple cases. However, calculation of electrostatics in proteins is not a t rivial problem, a nd several models have been used to t ry to describe these interactions. e question is of extreme interest, however, because electrostatic energies are one of the best correlators between structure and function in biochemical systems.1-4 ere are two main problems in formulating a model to describe protein electrostatics.5 First, the electrostatic inter actions within proteins are occurring at microscopically small distances, which make the dielectric constant ambiguous. In addition, the protein environments a re i rregularly s haped, suc h t hat t he a nalytical models are impractical to use.
