Welcome to ICM-Pro
ICM-Pro is an integrated molecular modeling environment for structural biology, computational chemistry, and structure-based drug design. It brings protein structures, sequences, ligands, molecular modeling, docking, molecular dynamics, cheminformatics, and visualization together within a single graphical interface.
The ICM graphical user interface (GUI) provides access to most commonly used tools without requiring knowledge of the ICM command language. More advanced users can combine GUI workflows with ICM commands and scripts for automation and high-throughput calculations.
If you are new to ICM, we recommend starting with the Getting Started section of this manual.
What Can I Do with ICM?
Depending on the ICM product and modules installed, ICM can be used to:
- Explore and analyze protein structures including structures downloaded from the PDB and AlphaFold databases. See Protein Structure.
- Visualize molecular structures using a wide range of molecular representations, surfaces, coloring, labels, measurements, and publication-quality graphics. See Molecular Graphics.
- Analyze sequences and alignments and link sequence information directly to corresponding 3D structures. See Sequences and Alignments.
- Build and modify protein structures using homology modeling, loop modeling, mutations, side-chain refinement, and other protein modeling tools. See Protein Modeling.
- Analyze protein binding sites including pockets, molecular interactions, hydrogen bonds, surfaces, and protein-ligand contacts. See Protein Structure Analysis.
- Dock small molecules, peptides, and proteins and analyze predicted binding modes. See Docking.
- Perform virtual ligand screening using structure-based and ligand-based approaches. See Virtual Ligand Screening.
- Run and analyze molecular dynamics simulations using the ICM interface to OpenMM. See Molecular Dynamics.
- Design and optimize ligands interactively in the binding site using the 3D Ligand Editor and ligand design tools. See 3D Ligand Editor.
- Work with chemical databases including chemical searching, clustering, property calculation, fingerprint analysis, and other cheminformatics tools. See Cheminformatics.
- Perform quantum mechanical calculations through the integrated QM interface. See Quantum Mechanics.
Some functionality may require additional ICM modules or licenses.
About This User Guide
This guide describes how to use ICM through the graphical user interface (GUI). It is intended both for new users learning ICM and for experienced users looking for instructions on a particular feature or workflow.
New users should begin with Getting Started, which introduces the main components of the ICM interface and covers fundamental tasks such as loading a structure, navigating the 3D display, making selections, changing molecular representations, and saving projects.
Step-by-step examples for many commonly used workflows are available in the ICM Tutorials.
Short demonstrations, webinars, and how-to videos are available on the Help Videos page.
For information about ICM commands, scripting, and programming, please see the ICM Language Reference Guide.
Keeping ICM Up to Date
ICM is continually updated with new methods and features. The latest developments are described on the What's New page and in the ICM Release Notes.
Installation and Licensing
Information about ICM products, system requirements, and licensing is available on the ICM Products and Licensing page.
Current installation instructions and software downloads are available from the MolSoft Support Site.
To request an ICM license or evaluation, please contact MolSoft.
Training and Support
MolSoft provides technical support, webinars, workshops, and hands-on training for ICM users. Upcoming training opportunities are listed on the MolSoft Training and Events page.
Additional help is available through the MolSoft Support Site, the ICM Help Videos, and the ICM Tutorials.