HEURISTIC METHODS IN CONFORMATIONAL SPACE SEARCH OF PEPTIDES

Heuristic methods for combinatorial optimization problems can be helpf ul in searching for the lowest energy conformation of molecules. Among them, genetic algorithms are still in their infancy when dealing with this problem. Instead, simulated annealing and its variations like th reshold accepting have proved to be competitive when compared to other optimization methods. We present here satisfactory results when apply ing the threshold accepting algorithm to small size peptide molecules.