An Efficient GaMD Multi-Level Enhanced Sampling Strategy for Polarizable Force Fields Simulations of Large Biological Systems

Abstract

We introduce a novel multi-level enhanced sampling strategy grounded on Gaussian accelerated Molecular Dynamics (GaMD). First, we propose a GaMD multi-GPUs -accelerated implementation within Tinker-HP. For the specific use with the flexible AMOEBA polarizable force field (PFF), we introduce the new "dual–water" GaMD mode. By adding harmonic boosts to the water stretching and bonding terms, it accelerates the solvent-solute interactions while enabling speedups with fast multiple–timestep integrators. To further reduce time-to-solution, we couple GaMD to Umbrella Sampling (US). The GaMD—US/dual–water approach is tested on the 1D Potential of Mean Force (PMF) of the CD2–CD58 system (168000 atoms) allowing the AMOEBA PMF to converge within 1 kcal/mol of the experimental value. Finally, Adaptive Sampling (AS) is added enabling AS–GaMD capabilities but also the introduction of the new Adaptive Sampling–US–GaMD (ASUS–GaMD) scheme. The highly parallel ASUS–GaMD setup decreases time to convergence by respectively 10 and 20 compared to GaMD–US and US.