A systematic method to derive force fields for coarse-grained simulations of phospholipids

A general method to derive effective force fields for the simulation of coarse-grained versions of phospholipids is presented. The specific case of the dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) bilayers is considered in detail. It is shown that key structural properties are fairly well reproduced, improving the results obtained with other methods. In particular, we obtain rather accurate descriptions of the water–lipid interactions that mimic important hydration properties.