October 14, 2024

Planned downtime: The Chimera and ChimeraX websites, web services (Blast Protein, Modeller, ...) and cgl.ucsf.edu e-mail will be unavailable starting Monday, Oct 14 10 AM PDT, continuing throughout the week and potentially the weekend (Oct 14-20).

August 1, 2024

Planned downtime: The Chimera and ChimeraX websites, web services (Blast Protein, Modeller, ...) and cgl.ucsf.edu e-mail will be unavailable August 1, 3-6 pm PDT.

July 16, 2024

Chimera production release 1.18 is now available. See the release notes for details.

June 17-18, 2024

Planned downtime: The Chimera and ChimeraX websites, web services (Blast Protein, Modeller, ...) and cgl.ucsf.edu e-mail will be unavailable June 17-18 PDT.

October 30-31, 2023

Planned downtime: The Chimera and ChimeraX websites and associated web services will be unavailable Oct 30 8am PDT – Oct 31 11:59pm PDT.

April 19, 2023

Chimera production release 1.17.1 is now available, fixing an issue with 1.17 for Windows and Linux. See the release notes for details.

April 13, 2023

Chimera production release 1.17 is now available. Updating is required to keep using the tools that run Blast Protein, Modeller, and multiple sequence alignment with Clustal Omega or MUSCLE, as these will soon stop working in older versions. See the release notes for details.

December 21, 2022

The RBVI wishes you a safe and happy holiday season! See our 2022 card and the gallery of previous cards back to 1985.

September 27, 2022

Website downtime: The RBVI website (Chimera, ChimeraX, etc.) and RBVI-hosted web services will be down for maintenance from Tue, Sep 27 9pm PDT, through Wed, possibly extending to Thu, Sep 29 5pm PDT.

December 20, 2021

The RBVI wishes you a safe and happy holiday season! See our 2021 card and the gallery of previous cards back to 1985.

December 17, 2021

Chimera production release 1.16 is now available. This will be the last release to support Windows 7. See the release notes for what's new.

December 18, 2020

Chimera production release 1.15 is now available. See the release notes for what's new.

December 11, 2020

The RBVI wishes you a safe and happy holiday season! See our 2020 card and the gallery of previous cards back to 1985.

November 4, 2020

A 1.15 production release candidate is available, including a fix to work with the new PDB fetch locations (see the release notes). Please try it and report any problems.

November 13, 2019

Chimera production release 1.14 is now available. See the release notes for what's new.

September 21, 2019

A production release candidate (version 1.14) is available; please try it and report any problems. See the release notes for what's new.

November 17, 2018

Chimera production release 1.13.1 is now available; see the release notes for what's new. The Mac version requires OS 10.10 or later.

October 22, 2018

Mac users: the 1.13.1 release candidate and recent daily builds contain a fix for Mojave (OS 10.14). These versions require OS 10.10 or later.

September 21, 2018

Mac users are advised to hold off upgrading to Mojave until we find a fix for Chimera buttons not being shown until the windows containing them are resized.

July 3, 2018

Chimera production release 1.13 is now available. See the release notes for what's new.

June 2, 2018

A production release candidate (version 1.13) is available; please try it and report any problems. See the release notes for what's new.

October 24, 2017

Chimera production release 1.12 is now available (64-bit builds for Windows, Mac, and Linux). See the release notes for details.

September 12, 2017

A production release candidate (version 1.12) is available; please try it and report any problems. See the release notes for what's new.

March 13, 2017

For a nice 3D-printing protocol that uses Chimera, see 3D Printing of Biomolecular Models for Research and Pedagogy by Da Veiga Beltrame, Tyrwhitt-Drake, et al. today in JoVE!

December 2, 2016

Chimera production release 1.11.2 is now available. This version has been updated to work with changes in NCBI Blast and to avoid crashes on Mac Sierra (see the release notes for details).

September 24, 2016

Production release candidate (version 1.11.2) is available, superseding 1.11.1. The new version has been updated to work with changes in NCBI Blast (see release notes). Please try it and report any problems.

August 27, 2016

A production release candidate (version 1.11.1) is now available. Please try it and report any problems. See the release notes for what's been fixed since 1.11. The 1.11 release series will be the last to support 32-bit builds.

July 15, 2016

Chimera production release 1.11 is now available. 64-bit builds are now recommended for all capable platforms, and v1.11 will be the last to support 32-bit builds. See the release notes for details.

June 23, 2016

PLOS Computational Biology announces winning T-shirt design created by Luigi Di Costanzo (RCSB Protein Data Bank) using UCSF Chimera.

April 6, 2016

A production release candidate (v1.11) is available; please try it and report any problems. 64-bit builds are now recommended for all capable platforms, and v1.11 will be the last to support 32-bit builds. See the release notes for what's new.

July 23, 2015

Chimera production release 1.10.2 is now available. Fixes include code signing for Mac OS X installation. The 1.10 series will be the last to support OS X 10.6 and 10.7. See the release notes for details.

January 9, 2015

Chimera production release 1.10.1 is now available. 64-bit builds are recommended for all capable platforms, and the 1.10 series will be the last to support OS X 10.6 and 10.7. See the release notes for details.

November 5, 2014

Chimera production release 1.10 is now available. 64-bit builds are recommended for all capable platforms, and v1.10 will be the last to support OS X 10.6 and 10.7. See the release notes for what's new.

October 23, 2014

A production release candidate (v1.10) is available; please try it and report any problems. 64-bit builds are now recommended for all capable platforms, and v1.10 will be the last to support OS X 10.6 and 10.7. See the release notes for what's new.

August 15, 2014

We are delighted to announce the publication of a new book, Computational and Visualization Techniques for Structural Bioinformatics Using Chimera, written by Forbes J. Burkowski (University of Waterloo).

May 13, 2014

Chimera production release 1.9 is now available. See the release notes for new features since the 1.8 release series.

April 23, 2014

A production release candidate (version 1.9) is now available; please try it and report any problems. See the release notes for changes relative to the previous release.

October 31, 2013

Chimera production release 1.8.1 is now available. Changes since 1.8 are mainly to fix problems with Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks). See the release notes for further details and for a list of new features since the 1.7 release.

June 7, 2013

Chimera production release 1.8 is now available. See the release notes for new features since the 1.7 release.

April 18, 2013

A production release candidate (version 1.8) is now available; please try it and report any problems. See the release notes for changes relative to the previous release.

January 30, 2013

Chimera production release 1.7 is now available. See the release notes for new features since the 1.6 release series. Mac PowerPC and OS X 10.5 are no longer supported.

January 17, 2013

A production release candidate (version 1.7) is now available; please try it and report any problems. See the release notes for changes relative to the previous release. Mac PowerPC and OS X 10.5 are no longer supported.

December 17, 2012

The ViewMotions Server (from the Kantrowitz Lab, Boston College) shows protein conformational changes as a series of structures rainbow-colored from blue to red. Results include an image and a Chimera session file.

December 13, 2012

The Assemble2 plugin (developed by Fabrice Jossinet, IBMC-CNRS, Strasbourg) allows designing 2D RNA structures interactively and generating corresponding 3D structures directly in Chimera.

July 11, 2012

A new mural at James Madison University was made with assistance from Chimera! The three-story mural, created by Alison Stephen, depicts diverse organisms around a large DNA double helix adapted from a Chimera image by Jonathan Monroe.

July 6, 2012

Chimera production release 1.6.2 is now available. The 1.6 release series will be the last to support Mac PowerPC platforms and OS X 10.5 (Leopard). See the release notes for new features since the 1.5 series and bugfixes since 1.6.1.

June 5, 2012

The SALIGN Webserver for multiple protein sequence/structure alignment can launch Chimera to display the superimposed structures and associated multiple sequence alignment.

March 13, 2012

Chimera production release 1.6.1 is now available. The 1.6 release series will be the last to support Mac PowerPC platforms and OS X 10.5 (Leopard). See the release notes for new features since the 1.5 series and bugfixes since 1.6.

February 29, 2012

Chimera production release 1.6 is now available. This will be the last release supporting Mac PowerPC platforms and OS X 10.5 (Leopard). See the release notes for new features since the 1.5 release series.

January 26, 2012

A Chimera production release candidate (version 1.6) is available; please try it and report any problems. See the release notes for changes relative to previous versions.

December 1, 2011

The SwissSidechain plugin allows mutation to hundreds of non-natural residue types available in the SwissSidechain database (browse...). The plugin and database are developed by the SIB Molecular Modelling Group.

August 16, 2011

House Minority Leader Pelosi and San Francisco Mayor Lee visited UCSF Mission Bay to announce the inaugural Bay Area Science Festival. Their day included a demonstration of Chimera stereo graphics in RBVI's Viz Vault. [UCSF News]

May 24, 2011

Chimera production release 1.5.3 is now available, including 64-bit versions. See the release notes for new features since 1.4 and fixes since 1.5 (Dec 2010). The 1.5 release series will be the last that is supported for the X11 version on Mac.

March 24, 2011

A production release candidate (version 1.5.3) is now available; please try it and report any problems. See the release notes for changes relative to previous versions.

February 7, 2011

A fix for the problem of recurring registration prompts in Chimera versions older than 1.5.2 is available here. If you are using version 1.5.2 or newer, however, no action is required.

January 25, 2011

Chimera production release 1.5.2 is now available, fixing an issue with the registration process that appeared recently but affects all previous versions of Chimera. For those who do not wish to upgrade, we plan to have a solution in about a week for existing older versions.

January 12, 2011

Chimera production release 1.5.1 is now available, including 64-bit versions. See the release notes for a list of new features since 1.4 and fixes since 1.5 (December 2010). The 1.5 release series will be the last for the X11 version on Mac.

December 11, 2010

Chimera production release 1.5 is now available, including 64-bit versions for Mac OS X 10.6, Windows 7, and Linux. See the release notes for a list of new features and changes since the 1.4 release series. Chimera 1.5 will be the last release for the X11 version on Mac.

November 2, 2010

A Chimera production release candidate (version 1.5) is now available. Many new features have been added since the last production release. Please try the candidate and report any problems. Chimera 1.5 will be the last release for the X11 version on Mac.

August 20, 2010

The Alber Lab at UC Berkeley has released Ringer, which is dependent on Chimera. Ringer detects functionally relevant protein side chain motions by systematically sampling X-ray electron density. The code is open source and freely available to academics (citation).

August 10, 2010

A 64-bit Windows daily build is now available.

May 5, 2010

The ViewDock TDW extension allows visualization of DOCK screening results with Tiled Display Walls. Developed by Christopher Lau in collaboration with the Haga lab at UCSD and the Date lab at Osaka University (credits, photos, download).

April 6, 2010

Chimera production release 1.4.1 is now available. The 1.4 release series will be the last for Mac OS X 10.4. See the release notes for a list of new features and changes since release 1.3 (December 2008) and fixes since release 1.4 (December 2009).

December 8, 2009

The UCSC Genome Browser now provides Chimera Web data. Clicking a Chimera link in a UCSC Gene page or SNP track details page displays the corresponding structure as a ribbon with nonsynonymous SNP residues (if any) shown with color and labeled with the dbSNP identifier (details...).

December 3, 2009

Chimera production release 1.4 is now available. The 1.4 release series will be the last for Mac OS X 10.4. See the release notes for a list of new features and changes since the last production release (December 2008).

October 14, 2009

A new Chimera production release candidate (version 1.4) is now available. Many new features have been added since the last production release. Please try the release candidate and report any problems.

August 20, 2009

A new Chimera snapshot release is available. This release provides access to many new features added since the last production release, with a greater level of testing than daily builds.

July 3, 2009

SMILES → 3D conversion and fetching modeled 3D structures by PubChem CID have been updated (in daily builds) to use the new REST services provided by the Chemical Informatics and Cyberinfrastructure Collaboratory (CICC) at Indiana University.

April 24, 2009

The LabelHash server searches the PDB for matches to a user-specified 3D motif (pattern of residues). Results are shown with Chimera images and can be downloaded for local viewing with the Chimera extension ViewMatch. LabelHash and ViewMatch are provided by the Kavraki Lab at Rice University.

April 17, 2009

The LS-SNP/PDB database features Chimera images of human nonsynonymous SNP locations in protein structures and molecular surfaces colored by sequence conservation and electrostatic potential. This database is provided by the Karchin Lab at Johns Hopkins University.

December 9, 2008

Chimera production release 1.3 is available for all platforms, including Mac Aqua (does not require X windows). It addresses Microsoft Windows graphics drivers problems and will be the last production release for IRIX and Tru64. See the release notes for changes since the previous production release (July 2008).

December 5, 2008

Several features are slated for removal from Chimera after release 1.3. There will be a comment period of a few weeks after the release before the features are removed, so please let us know as soon as possible if you deem any of them important to your work.

November 17, 2008

A new production release candidate addressing Microsoft Windows graphics drivers problems, particularly with integrated graphics accelerator chips, is now available. Release 1.3 candidates are available for all platforms including a Mac Aqua version that does not require X windows.

November 16, 2008

With the upcoming production release of Chimera we are changing our version numbering to clarify major releases and allow us to provide critical bug fixes while working on newer versions. The upcoming release will be release 1.3. Critical bug fixes (if any) to 1.3 will be released as 1.3.1, 1.3.2, etc., and the next major release of Chimera will be release 1.4.

September 23, 2008

Chimera's next production release (date TBA) will be the last for IRIX and Tru64. Daily builds for these platforms will be halted at that time.

August 5, 2008

The ConSurf Server now provides results as Chimera Web data: a single click displays the color-coded query structure and multiple sequence alignment in a locally installed copy of Chimera (screen shot).

July 9, 2008

Chimera production release v1.2540 is now available. Changes since the previous production release (v1.2470, Nov 2007) are detailed in the release notes.

July 1, 2008

Current daily builds are candidates for the upcoming production release. Exceptions are the Mac Aqua and Linux OSMESA (off-screen rendering) versions, which will remain "development" for now. Please try the release candidates and report any problems.

May 30, 2008

A new snapshot and the daily builds now include downloads for Mac OS X Aqua.

May 1, 2008

A new Chimera snapshot is available. It will be the last release with Tk 8.4. Daily builds now include Tk 8.5, which means that GUIs on Linux and Mac OS X use antialiased fonts.

April 2008

Chimera is featured in the Education Corner of the RCSB PDB Newsletter, Spring 2008 edition.

February 13, 2008

A new Chimera snapshot is available. It will be the last release with Python 2.4, as development with 2.5 has begun. The SGI IRIX and HP Tru64 platforms are now deprecated; their support depends on the continued availability of such machines to the development team.

November 23, 2007

An expanded tutorial for beginning Chimera users is available online.

November 16, 2007

Chimera production release v1.2470 is available. This is the last release to officially support Mac OS 10.3. There have been several changes since the previous production release (v1.2422, June 2007).

November 8, 2007

A Chimera release candidate is available. Please try your favorite features and let us know of any problems. The upcoming production release will be the last to officially support Mac OS 10.3.

September 25, 2007

Daily builds of Chimera are now available for download. These distributions contain the latest features and bug fixes. However, they are untested so use at your own risk.

August 8, 2007

Chimera website has been redesigned to improve access to content and information about UCSF Chimera

June 21, 2007

A new production release of Chimera is available for all platforms. Recently added features include:

• Embedded POV-Ray for saving shadowed, ray-traced images
• Presets menu for conveniently switching display settings
• Fit Map in Map tool for superimposing density maps

Please see the release notes for more information.