What in silico molecular docking can do for the ‘bench-working biologists’

Required by an increasing amount of scientists, the in silico docking field is in full expansion, new algorithms and methods appearing at an exponential rate. The sheer range of available programs is overwhelming for the bench-working biologist, which is often discouraging by the lack of a graphical user interface, good user manual or literature to validate a given program. This mini-review attempts to present the docking problem and available solutions from a non-bioinformatician point of view and makes a selection of the available servers and programs. These tools are evaluated from several points of view, as numbers of citations, ease of usage and computer requirements. Finally, the capabilities and limitations as well as specific applications of in silico docking techniques are presented.