With a $2.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center will host ANTON for an extended period in the fall, where a long list of pharmaceutical researchers and university eggheads will vie for their chance on the great machine.
Almost any kind of therapeutic drug, down to something as simple as Asprin, interacts with proteins in the body in very specific ways to reduce pain or stop cancerous cells from growing, says PSC science writer Michael Schneider. The more precise knowledge we are able to get about the structure of proteins and how they move in the body over very precise time frames-we are talking about nanoseconds-it gives you a big advantage.
With 512 processors running simultaneously, ANTON has the power to seriously advance complex protein research. These processors can project the movements over time of 50,000 atoms, anticipating the actions of complex molecular relationships in real time. In short, ANTON can do in a day what it takes top supercomputers months to achieve.
After securing the grant in May, PSC began accepting applications from various institutions for time on the machine. Now that the application period has ended, PSC staff must examine thousands of research concepts for the ones most worthy. Those chosen will receive a limited supply of funding and resources. But the big prize is getting to work with the big, brainy New Yorker who seems to have it all.
Most of the supercomputers that we have here are not specialized. They are used in many kinds of research from astrophysics to chemistry to earth science, says Schneider. ANTON is a specialized computer for just this kind of research, allowing for algorithms previously unavailable to scientists in this field. We are very pleased to welcome this technology to Pittsburgh.
Source: Michael Schneider, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
Writer: John Steele