Learn to Use Mol* for 3D Visualization

01/06 

Mol* tutorial playlist on YouTube

Mol* (molstar) is a modern, web-based open-source toolkit for visualization and analysis of large-scale molecular data. Mol* is used throughout RCSB.org, from generating the 2D images available for every structure and entity in the PDB; to offering interactive 3D views of structures, sequence annotations on structures, electron density; and close-up views of ligand interactions.

A standalone version of Mol* is also available that allows users to upload custom files and/or superimpose different structures in the same viewer.

To learn more about Mol* at RCSB.org:

• Introduction to Mol* Video Tutorial Series at PDB-101
• The supplementary material for the publication
  Visualizing and Analyzing 3D Biomolecular Structures using Mol* at RCSB.org: Influenza A H5N1 Virus Proteome Case Study
  (2025) Protein Science 34: e70093
  provides instructions for recreating most of the Mol* visualizations from the main manuscript, along with additional details where needed.
• Mol* tutorial playlist on YouTube, which includes some short demonstrations taken from the Protein Science publication
• Documentation at RCSB.org

For an overview of Mol* features, see "Mol* Viewer: modern web app for 3D visualization and analysis of large biomolecular structures" Nucleic Acids Research (2021) 49: W431–W437 doi: 10.1093/nar/gkab314.

Additional details about Mol* usage and development are available at Molstar.org.

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