Improvements in continuum modeling for biomolecular systems

Modeling of biomolecular systems plays an essential role in understanding biological processes, such as ionic flow across channels, protein modification or interaction, and cell signaling. The continuum model described by the Poisson– Boltzmann (PB)/Poisson–Nernst–Planck (PNP) equations has made great contributions towards simulation of these processes. However, the model has shortcomings in its commonly used form and cannot capture (or cannot accurately capture) some important physical properties of the biological systems. Considerable efforts have been made to improve the continuum model to account for discrete particle interactions and to make progress in numerical methods to provide accurate and efficient simulations. This review will summarize recent main improvements in continuum modeling for biomolecular systems, with focus on the size-modified models, the coupling of the classical density functional theory and the PNP equations, the coupling of polar and nonpolar interactions, and numerical progress. (topical review)