@misc{Weber2009, author = {Weber, Marcus}, title = {A Subspace Approach to Molecular Markov State Models via an Infinitesimal Generator}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-11432}, number = {09-27}, year = {2009}, abstract = {Supercomputers can simulate complex molecular systems. However, there is a very large gap between the fastest oscillations of covalent bonds of a molecule and the time-scale of the dominant processes. In order to extract the dominant time-scales and to identify the dominant processes, a clustering of information is needed. This thesis shows that only the subspace-based Robust Perron Cluster Analysis (PCCA+) can solve this problem correctly by the construction of a Markov State Model. PCCA+ allows for time-extrapolation in molecular kinetics. This thesis shows the difference between molecular dynamics and molecular kinetics. Only in the molecular kinetics framework a definition of transition rates is possible. In this context, the existence of an infinitesimal generator of the dynamical processes is discussed. If the existence is assumed, the Theorem of Gauß can be applied in order to compute transition rates efficiently. Molecular dynamics, however, is not able to provide a suitable statistical basis for the determination of the transition pattern.}, language = {en} } @misc{Weber2008, author = {Weber, Marcus}, title = {An efficient analysis of rare events in canonical ensemble dynamics}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-10871}, number = {08-36}, year = {2008}, abstract = {For an analysis of a molecular system from a computational statistical thermodynamics point of view, extensive molecular dynamics simulations are very inefficient. During this procedure, at lot of redundant data is generated. Whereas the algorithms spend most of the computing time for a sampling of configurations within the basins of the potential energy landscape of the molecular system, the important information about the long-time behaviour of the molecules is given by transition regions and barriers between the basins, which are sampled rarely only. Thinking of molecular dynamics trajectories, researchers try to figure out which kind of dynamical model is suitable for an efficient simulation. This article suggests to change the point of view from extensive simulation of molecular dynamics trajectories to more efficient sampling strategies of the conformation dynamics approach.}, language = {en} } @misc{FackeldeyRoeblitzScharkoietal.2011, author = {Fackeldey, Konstantin and R{\"o}blitz, Susanna and Scharkoi, Olga and Weber, Marcus}, title = {Soft Versus Hard Metastable Conformations in Molecular Simulations}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-13189}, number = {11-27}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Particle methods have become indispensible in conformation dynamics to compute transition rates in protein folding, binding processes and molecular design, to mention a few. Conformation dynamics requires at a decomposition of a molecule's position space into metastable conformations. In this paper, we show how this decomposition can be obtained via the design of either ``soft'' or ``hard'' molecular conformations. We show, that the soft approach results in a larger metastabilitiy of the decomposition and is thus more advantegous. This is illustrated by a simulation of Alanine Dipeptide.}, language = {en} } @misc{Weber2012, author = {Weber, Marcus}, title = {The funnel trap paradox}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-14765}, number = {12-12}, year = {2012}, abstract = {In this article, an illustrative example is given for the coarse-graining of a Markov process which leads to a shift in the statistical weights of a two-states-system. The example is based on a 2D-funnel trap. The funnel trap is constructed in such a way, that the area inside and outside of the trap is identical. However, observing the flight of the insect as a Markov process, the probability for being "in the trap" is higher. This example can be transferred to several kinds of processes (like receptor-ligandbinding processes in chemistry) and describes the influence of "re-entering events".}, language = {en} } @misc{WeberWalterKubeetal.2006, author = {Weber, Marcus and Walter, Lionel and Kube, Susanna and Deuflhard, Peter}, title = {Stable computation of probability densities for metastable dynamical systems}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-9331}, number = {06-39}, year = {2006}, abstract = {Whenever the invariant stationary density of metastable dynamical systems decomposes into almost invariant partial densities, its computation as eigenvector of some transition probability matrix is an ill-conditioned problem. In order to avoid this computational difficulty, we suggest to apply an aggregation/disaggregation method which only addresses wellconditioned sub-problems and thus results in a stable algorithm. In contrast to existing methods, the aggregation step is done via a sampling algorithm which covers only small patches of the sampling space. Finally, the theoretical analysis is illustrated by two biomolecular examples.}, language = {en} } @misc{Weber2003, author = {Weber, Marcus}, title = {Clustering by using a simplex structure}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-7782}, number = {04-03}, year = {2003}, abstract = {In this paper we interpret clustering as a mapping of data into a simplex. If the data itself has simplicial struture this mapping becomes linear. Spectral analysis is an often used tool for clustering data. We will show that corresponding singular vectors or eigenvectors comprise simplicial structure. Therefore they lead to a cluster algorithm, which consists of a simple linear mapping. An example for this kind of algorithms is the Perron cluster analysis (PCCA). We have applied it in practice to identify metastable sets of molecular dynamical systems. In contrast to other algorithms, this kind of approach provides an a priori criterion to determine the number of clusters. In this paper we extend the ideas to more general problems like clustering of bipartite graphs.}, language = {en} } @misc{WeberRungsarityotinSchliep2004, author = {Weber, Marcus and Rungsarityotin, Wasinee and Schliep, Alexander}, title = {Perron Cluster Analysis and Its Connection to Graph Partitioning for Noisy Data}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-8140}, number = {04-39}, year = {2004}, abstract = {The problem of clustering data can be formulated as a graph partitioning problem. Spectral methods for obtaining optimal solutions have reveceived a lot of attention recently. We describe Perron Cluster Cluster Analysis (PCCA) and, for the first time, establish a connection to spectral graph partitioning. We show that in our approach a clustering can be efficiently computed using a simple linear map of the eigenvector data. To deal with the prevalent problem of noisy and possibly overlapping data we introduce the min Chi indicator which helps in selecting the number of clusters and confirming the existence of a partition of the data. This gives a non-probabilistic alternative to statistical mixture-models. We close with showing favorable results on the analysis of gene expressi on data for two different cancer types.}, language = {en} } @misc{WeberKubeRiemeretal.2006, author = {Weber, Marcus and Kube, Susanna and Riemer, Alexander and Bujotzek, Alexander}, title = {Efficient Sampling of the Stationary Distribution of Metastable Dynamical Systems}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-9467}, number = {07-03}, year = {2006}, abstract = {In this article we aim at an efficient sampling of the stationary distribution of dynamical systems in the presence of metastabilities. In the past decade many sophisticated algorithms have been inven ted in this field. We do not want to simply add a further one. We address the problem that one has applied a sampling algorithm for a dynamical system many times. This leads to different samplings which more or less represent the stationary distribution partially very well, but which are still far away from ergodicity or from the global stationary distribution. We will show how these samplings can be joined together in order to get one global sampling of the stationary distribution.}, language = {en} } @misc{KubeWeber2005, author = {Kube, Susanna and Weber, Marcus}, title = {Identification of Metastabilities in Monomolecular Conformation Kinetics}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-8956}, number = {06-01}, year = {2005}, abstract = {The identification of metastable conformations of molecules plays an important role in computational drug design. One main difficulty is the fact that the underlying dynamic processes take place in high dimensional spaces. Although the restriction of degrees of freedom to a few dihedral angles significantly reduces the complexity of the problem, the existing algorithms are time-consuming. They are based on the approximation of transition probabilities by an extensive sampling of states according to the Boltzmann distribution. We present a method which can identify metastable conformations without sampling the complete distribution. Our algorithm is based on local transition rates and uses only pointwise information about the potential energy surface. In order to apply the cluster algorithm PCCA+, we compute a few eigenvectors of the rate matrix by the Jacobi-Davidson method. Interpolation techniques are applied to approximate the thermodynamical weights of the clusters. The concluding example illustrates our approach for epigallocatechine, a molecule which can be described by seven dihedral angles.}, language = {en} } @misc{WalterWeber2006, author = {Walter, Lionel and Weber, Marcus}, title = {ConfJump : a fast biomolecular sampling method which drills tunnels through high mountains}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-9204}, number = {06-26}, year = {2006}, abstract = {In order to compute the thermodynamic weights of the different metastable conformations of a molecule, we want to approximate the molecule's Boltzmann distribution in a reasonable time. This is an essential issue in computational drug design. The energy landscape of active biomolecules is generally very rough with a lot of high barriers and low regions. Many of the algorithms that perform such samplings (e.g. the hybrid Monte Carlo method) have difficulties with such landscapes. They are trapped in low-energy regions for a very long time and cannot overcome high barriers. Moving from one low-energy region to another is a very rare event. For these reasons, the distribution of the generated sampling points converges very slowly against the thermodynamically correct distribution of the molecule. The idea of ConfJump is to use \$a~priori\$ knowledge of the localization of low-energy regions to enhance the sampling with artificial jumps between these low-energy regions. The artificial jumps are combined with the hybrid Monte Carlo method. This allows the computation of some dynamical properties of the molecule. In ConfJump, the detailed balance condition is satisfied and the mathematically correct molecular distribution is sampled.}, language = {en} } @misc{WeberBeckerKoeppenetal.2007, author = {Weber, Marcus and Becker, Roland and K{\"o}ppen, Robert and Durmaz, Vedat}, title = {Classical hybrid Monte-Carlo simulations of the interconversion of hexabromocyclododecane}, organization = {Zuse-Institut Berlin}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-10308}, number = {07-31}, year = {2007}, abstract = {In this paper, we investigate the interconversion processes of the major flame retardant -- 1,2,5,6,9,10-hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) -- by the means of statistical thermodynamics based on classical force-fields. Three ideas will be presented. First, the application of classical hybrid Monte-Carlo simulations for quantum mechanical processes will be justified. Second, the problem of insufficient convergence properties of hybrid Monte-Carlo methods for the generation of low temperature canonical ensembles will be solved by an interpolation approach. Furthermore, it will be shown how free energy differences can be used for a rate matrix computation. The results of our numerical simulations will be compared to experimental results.}, language = {en} } @misc{TungaWeber2012, author = {Tunga, Burcu and Weber, Marcus}, title = {Free Energy Calculation Using Mayer Cluster Expansion and Fluctuation Free Integration}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-16031}, year = {2012}, abstract = {This work aims to develop a new algorithm to calculate the free energy of water molecules by using a deterministic way. For this purpose, we assume a closed system confined to a physical volume, having water molecules in gas phase. To calculate the free energy of this sytem we utilized Mayer cluster expansion and the fluctuation free integration method.}, language = {en} } @misc{WeberFackeldey2013, author = {Weber, Marcus and Fackeldey, Konstantin}, title = {Computing the Minimal Rebinding Effect Included in a Given Kinetics}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {10.1137/13091124X}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-17796}, year = {2013}, abstract = {The rebinding effect is a phenomenon which occurs when observing a ligand-receptor binding process. On the macro scale this process comprises the Markov property. This Makovian view is spoiled when switching to the atomistic scale of a binding process. We therefore suggest a model which accurately describes the rebinding effect on the atomistic scale by allowing ''intermediate'' bound states. This allows us to define an indicator for the magnitude of rebinding and to formulate an optimization problem. The results form our examples show good agreement with data form laboratory.}, language = {en} } @misc{LieFackeldeyWeber2013, author = {Lie, Han Cheng and Fackeldey, Konstantin and Weber, Marcus}, title = {A square root approximation of transition rates for a Markov State Model}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {10.1137/120899959}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-42195}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Trajectory- or mesh-based methods for analyzing the dynamical behavior of large molecules tend to be impractical due to the curse of dimensionality - their computational cost increases exponentially with the size of the molecule. We propose a method to break the curse by a novel square root approximation of transition rates, Monte Carlo quadrature and a discretization approach based on solving linear programs. With randomly sampled points on the molecular energy landscape and randomly generated discretizations of the molecular configuration space as our initial data, we construct a matrix describing the transition rates between adjacent discretization regions. This transition rate matrix yields a Markov State Model of the molecular dynamics. We use Perron cluster analysis and coarse-graining techniques in order to identify metastable sets in configuration space and approximate the transition rates between the metastable sets. Application of our method to a simple energy landscape on a two-dimensional configuration space provides proof of concept and an example for which we compare the performance of different discretizations. We show that the computational cost of our method grows only polynomially with the size of the molecule. However, finding discretizations of higher-dimensional configuration spaces in which metastable sets can be identified remains a challenge.}, language = {en} } @misc{NielsenFackeldeyWeber2013, author = {Nielsen, Adam and Fackeldey, Konstantin and Weber, Marcus}, title = {On a Generalized Transfer Operator}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-43162}, year = {2013}, abstract = {We introduce a generalized operator for arbitrary stochastic processes by using a pre-kernel, which is a generalization of the Markov kernel. For deterministic processes, such an operator is already known as the Frobenius-Perron operator, which is defined for a large class of measures. For Markov processes, there exists transfer operators being only well defined for stationary measures in \$L^2\$. Our novel generalized transfer operator is well defined for arbitrary stochastic processes, in particular also for deterministic ones. We can show that this operator is acting on \$L^1\$. For stationary measures, this operator is also an endomorphism of \$L^2\$ and, therefore, allows for a mathematical analysis in Hilbert spaces.}, language = {en} } @misc{FackeldeySikorskiWeber2018, author = {Fackeldey, Konstantin and Sikorski, Alexander and Weber, Marcus}, title = {Spectral Clustering for Non-reversible Markov Chains}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-70218}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Spectral clustering methods are based on solving eigenvalue problems for the identification of clusters, e.g. the identification of metastable subsets of a Markov chain. Usually, real-valued eigenvectors are mandatory for this type of algorithms. The Perron Cluster Analysis (PCCA+) is a well-known spectral clustering method of Markov chains. It is applicable for reversible Markov chains, because reversibility implies a real-valued spectrum. We also extend this spectral clustering method to non-reversible Markov chains and give some illustrative examples. The main idea is to replace the eigenvalue problem by a real-valued Schur decomposition. By this extension non-reversible Markov chains can be analyzed. Furthermore, the chains do not need to have a positive stationary distribution. In addition to metastabilities, dominant cycles and sinks can also be identified. This novel method is called GenPCCA (i.e. Generalized PCCA), since it includes the case of non reversible processes. We also apply the method to real world eye tracking data.}, language = {en} } @misc{BujotzekSchuettNielsenetal.2013, author = {Bujotzek, Alexander and Sch{\"u}tt, Ole and Nielsen, Adam and Fackeldey, Konstantin and Weber, Marcus}, title = {Efficient Conformational Analysis by Partition-of-Unity Coupling}, journal = {Math Chem}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-42570}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Obtaining a sufficient sampling of conformational space is a common problem in molecular simulation. We present the implementation of an umbrella-like adaptive sampling approach based on function-based meshless discretization of conformational space that is compatible with state of the art molecular dynamics code and that integrates an eigenvector-based clustering approach for conformational analysis and the computation of inter-conformational transition rates. The approach is applied to three example systems, namely n-pentane, alanine dipeptide, and a small synthetic host-guest system, the latter two including explicitly modeled solvent.}, language = {en} } @misc{QuerDonatiKelleretal.2017, author = {Quer, Jannes and Donati, Luca and Keller, Bettina and Weber, Marcus}, title = {An automatic adaptive importance sampling algorithm for molecular dynamics in reaction coordinates}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-62075}, year = {2017}, abstract = {In this article we propose an adaptive importance sampling scheme for dynamical quantities of high dimensional complex systems which are metastable. The main idea of this article is to combine a method coming from Molecular Dynamics Simulation, Metadynamics, with a theorem from stochastic analysis, Girsanov's theorem. The proposed algorithm has two advantages compared to a standard estimator of dynamic quantities: firstly, it is possible to produce estimators with a lower variance and, secondly, we can speed up the sampling. One of the main problems for building importance sampling schemes for metastable systems is to find the metastable region in order to manipulate the potential accordingly. Our method circumvents this problem by using an assimilated version of the Metadynamics algorithm and thus creates a non-equilibrium dynamics which is used to sample the equilibrium quantities.}, language = {en} } @misc{WeberFackeldeySchuette2017, author = {Weber, Marcus and Fackeldey, Konstantin and Sch{\"u}tte, Christof}, title = {Set-free Markov State Building}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {10.1063/1.4978501}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-62167}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations face challenging problems since the timescales of interest often are much longer than what is possible to simulate and even if sufficiently long simulation are possible the complex nature of the resulting simulation data makes interpretation difficult. Markov State Models (MSMs) help to overcome these problems by making experimentally relevant timescales accessible via coarse grained representations that also allows for convenient interpretation. However, standard set-based MSMs exhibit some caveats limiting their approximation quality and statistical significance. One of the main caveats results from the fact that typical MD trajectories repeatedly re-cross the boundary between the sets used to build the MSM which causes statistical bias in estimating the transition probabilities between these sets. In this article, we present a set-free approach to MSM building utilizing smooth overlapping ansatz functions instead of sets and an adaptive refinement approach. This kind of meshless discretization helps to overcome the recrossing problem and yields an adaptive refinement procedure that allows to improve the quality of the model while exploring state space and inserting new ansatz functions into the MSM.}, language = {en} } @misc{Weber2017, author = {Weber, Marcus}, title = {Eigenvalues of non-reversible Markov chains - A case study}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-62191}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Finite reversible Markov chains are characterized by a transition matrix P that has real eigenvalues and pi-orthogonal eigenvectors, where pi is the stationary distribution of P. This means, that a transition matrix with complex eigenvalues corresponds to a non-reversible Markov chain. This observation leads to the question, whether the imaginary part of that eigendecomposition corresponds to or indicates the "pattern" of the nonreversibility. This article shows that the direct relation between imaginary parts of eigendecompositions and the non-reversibility of a transition matrix is not given. It is proposed to apply the Schur decomposition of P instead of the eigendecomposition in order to characterize its nonreversibility.}, language = {en} } @misc{RaySunkaraSchuetteetal.2020, author = {Ray, Sourav and Sunkara, Vikram and Sch{\"u}tte, Christof and Weber, Marcus}, title = {How to calculate pH-dependent binding rates for receptor-ligand systems based on thermodynamic simulations with different binding motifs}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {10.1080/08927022.2020.1839660}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-78437}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Molecular simulations of ligand-receptor interactions are a computational challenge, especially when their association- (``on''-rate) and dissociation- (``off''-rate) mechanisms are working on vastly differing timescales. In addition, the timescale of the simulations themselves is, in practice, orders of magnitudes smaller than that of the mechanisms; which further adds to the complexity of observing these mechanisms, and of drawing meaningful and significant biological insights from the simulation. One way of tackling this multiscale problem is to compute the free-energy landscapes, where molecular dynamics (MD) trajectories are used to only produce certain statistical ensembles. The approach allows for deriving the transition rates between energy states as a function of the height of the activation-energy barriers. In this article, we derive the association rates of the opioids fentanyl and N-(3-fluoro-1-phenethylpiperidin-4-yl)- N-phenyl propionamide (NFEPP) in a \$\mu\$-opioid receptor by combining the free-energy landscape approach with the square-root-approximation method (SQRA), which is a particularly robust version of Markov modelling. The novelty of this work is that we derive the association rates as a function of the pH level using only an ensemble of MD simulations. We also verify our MD-derived insights by reproducing the in vitro study performed by the Stein Lab, who investigated the influence of pH on the inhibitory constant of fentanyl and NFEPP (Spahn et al. 2017). MD simulations are far more accessible and cost-effective than in vitro and in vivo studies. Especially in the context of the current opioid crisis, MD simulations can aid in unravelling molecular functionality and assist in clinical decision-making; the approaches presented in this paper are a pertinent step forward in this direction.}, language = {en} }