The process of hunt of a lead molecule is a long and a tedious process and one is often demoralized by the endless possibilities one has to search through. Fortunately, computational tools have come to the rescue and have undoubtedly played a pivotal role in rationalizing the path to drug discovery. Of all techniques, molecular docking has played a crucial role in computer aided drug design and has swiftly gained ranks to secure a valuable position in the modern scenario of structure-based drug design. In this chapter, the principle, sampling algorithms, scoring functions and diverse available software’s for molecular docking have been summarized. We demonstrate the interplay of docking, classical techniques of structure-based design and X-ray crystallography in the process of drug discovery. In addition, we dwell upon some of the limitations faced in docking studies. Finally, several success stories of molecular docking approaches in drug discovery have been highlighted, concluding with remarks on molecular docking for the future.
Part of the book: Drug Discovery and Development