The CASP 16 Experimental Protein-Ligand Datasets.
Tosstorff, A., Rudolph, M.G., Benz, J., Kuhn, B., Kramer, C., Sharpe, M., Huang, C.Y., Metz, A., Hazemann, J., Ritz, D., Sweeney, A.M., Gilson, M.K.(2026) Proteins 94: 79-85
- PubMed: 41040057 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/prot.70053
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
7H60, 7H61, 7H62, 7H63, 7H64, 7H65, 7H66, 7H67, 7H68, 7H69, 7H6A, 7H6B, 7H6C, 7H6D, 7H6E, 7H6F, 7H6G, 7H6H, 7H6I - PubMed Abstract: 
This paper presents the experimental protein-ligand datasets used as benchmarks in the CASP 16 blind prediction experiment-the first CASP round to incorporate targets from pharmaceutical discovery projects. We have assembled and characterized protein-ligand complexes for four proteins that are known or candidate drug targets: human chymase, human cathepsin G, human autotaxin, and the SARS-CoV-2 main protease. The collection encompasses over 200 co-crystal structures at resolutions better than 2.7 Å, paired with binding affinity measurements for approximately 160 compounds covering a broad affinity range (nanomolar to high micromolar). These data enabled the CASP16 pose-prediction and affinity-prediction challenges. Many systems feature potentially challenging characteristics, including chymase's electropositive surface and acidic ligands, which require proper handling of titratable ligand groups; autotaxin complexes with and without zinc coordination; and a SARS-CoV-2 protease crystal form exhibiting an unusually open active site conformation. We describe the experimental approaches-from protein production and crystallization to binding assay development-that yielded these reference data. Contributed by scientists at F. Hoffmann-La Roche and Idorsia Pharmaceuticals, these datasets represent actual drug discovery projects and therefore provide a realistic testbed for assessing how computational methods perform on pharmaceutically relevant targets. An accompanying paper in the present special journal issue provides a comprehensive assessment of the pose and affinity predictions for these pharmaceutical protein-ligand systems.
- Roche Pharmaceutical Research and Early Development (pRED), Roche Innovation Center Basel, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Basel, Switzerland.
Organizational Affiliation: 
















