navigation background RBVI's DNA logo navigation background about projects people publications resources visit us search

Quick Links

UCSF ChimeraX Home

Advantages

Documentation

User Guide
Tutorials and Videos
Presentations

Download

Toolshed
Statistics

Citing ChimeraX

Contact Us

Related Software

Featured Citations

Structure of the mouse cytoplasmic lattice. Chi P, Wang X et al. Nature. 2026 Jun 10;654(8118):523–531.

Pervasive and programmed nucleosome distortion on single chromatin fibres. Yang MG, Richter HJ et al. Nature. 2026 Jun 10;654(8118):513–522.

DNA damage drives antigen diversification in Trypanosoma brucei. Smith JE, Wang KJ et al. Nature. 2026 Jun 4;654(8117):219–228.

Ultrastructure of dopaminergic varicosities revealed by cryo-correlative light and electron microscopy. Lycas MD, Morado DR et al. J Cell Biol. 2026 Jun 1;225(6):e202503059.

Selective autophagy fine-tunes plant immunity to promote cell survival during viral infection. Clavel M, Bianchi A et al. Science. 2026 May 28;392(6801):eadu9554.

More citations...

News

June 11, 2026

The ChimeraX 1.12 production release is available! See the change log for what's new.

May 7, 2026

The ChimeraX 1.12 release candidate is available – please try it and report any issues. See the change log for what's new.

December 25, 2025

computer generated image
The RBVI wishes you a safe and happy holiday season! See our 2025 card and the gallery of previous cards back to 1985.

Previous news...

Upcoming Events


UCSF ChimeraX

UCSF ChimeraX (or simply ChimeraX) is the next-generation molecular visualization program from the Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics (RBVI), following UCSF Chimera. ChimeraX can be downloaded free of charge for academic, government, nonprofit, and personal use. Commercial users, please see ChimeraX commercial licensing.

ChimeraX is developed with support from National Institutes of Health R01-GM129325.

Bluesky logo ChimeraX on Bluesky: @chimerax.ucsf.edu

Feature Highlight

membrane protein with lipophilicity coloring

Coloring by Molecular Lipophilicity Potential

Molecular lipophilicity potential (MLP) can be calculated for a protein and displayed with surface coloring using the command mlp or the Molecule Display icon computer generated image. The image shows the photosynthetic reaction center from a purple sulfur bacterium, with MLP coloring on the molecular surface and membrane boundaries from OPM (Orientations of Proteins in Membranes entry 1eys). Blue and red balls represent the cytoplasmic and periplasmic sides of the bacterial inner membrane, respectively. Parts of the L, M, and H chains span the membrane, whereas the cytochrome subunit sits on the periplasmic side, at the top. The surface coloring ranges from dark goldenrod for the most hydrophobic potentials, through white, to dark cyan for the most hydrophilic. Ligands including lipid, detergent, heme, and various other cofactors are shown as purple surfaces.

For image setup after the structure from OPM has been opened, see the command file mlp.cxc.

More features...

Example Image

2015 holiday card with ribosome image

The Human Ribosome

The architecture of the human ribosome has been determined at near-atomic resolution by electron microscopy (Anger et al., Nature 497:80 (2013)). The structure, comprising 82 proteins and five RNA molecules, is shown with shadows cast from all directions to accentuate depth. In the background are schematic representations of contacts between the component molecules.

See the image setup script card.cxc using the 'Tis the Season color palette (credit to MrsP). See also the RBVI holiday card gallery.

More images...



About RBVI | Projects | People | Publications | Resources | Visit Us

Copyright 2018 Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.