Visual analysis of biomolecular surfaces.

Vijay Natarajan, Patrice Koehl, Yusu Wang, and Bernd Hamann.
In Mathematical Methods for Visualization in Medicine and Life Sciences.
L. Linsen, H. Hagen, and B. Hamann (editors),
Springer Verlag, Mathematics and Visualization Series, 2007, 237-255.

Abstract

Surface models of biomolecules have become crucially important for the study and understanding of interaction between biomolecules and their environment. We argue for the need for a detailed understanding of biomolecular surfaces by describing several applications in computational and structural biology. We review methods used to model, represent, characterize, and visualize biomolecular surfaces focusing on the role that geometry and topology play in identifying features on the surface. These methods enable the development of efficient computational and visualization tools for studying the function of biomolecules.

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