ASTRONOMY

CCG’s Molecular Operating Environment (MOE), which is a comprehensive software system for computer-assisted drug discovery and life sciences modeling, will be made available on a secure website to eligible Irish academics for download and use for a three-month period, commencing 15th October 2004. Some training material will also be provided. Academics will be encouraged to use and to promulgate use of MOE locally, in order to demonstrate the possibilities for research offered by the availability of such software, and explore potential uses in the area for high-end hardware. The overall purpose of the trial is therefore to demonstrate the feasibility and desirability of widespread availability of such technology, with a view to providing more permanent such arrangements in Ireland in future. The demo is being co-ordinated by Dr Geoff Bradley of the Trinity Centre for High Performance Computing, in collaboration with Dr Graeme Watson of the Department of Chemistry, and Dr. David Lloyd, Hitachi Lecturer and head of the TCD Molecular Design Group in the Department of Biochemistry. “We are delighted to be working with Chemical Computing Group on this,” said Dr Lloyd,“ MOE’s wide range of applications in the area of biomolecular simulation and drug discovery, coupled with its flexibility of access and onward development capabilities, make it ideal for this sort of distributed use.” Underpinning the infrastructure requirements of the national demo is the Trinity Centre for High Performance Computing. Dr. Steve Maginn, Director of Scientific Services at Chemical Computing Group, said “The Irish academic community is an ideal size, and Trinity College Dublin is ideally placed to turn the concept of widespread access to computational scientific facilities into a reality. We are very much looking forward to the trial and to continuing to work with Trinity on this on a more permanent basis in future.” Further Information: Chemical Computing Group Inc. is a leading provider of computational applications aimed at the drug discovery and design marketplace. CCG's flagship product is the award winning Molecular Operating Environment, which offers visualization, simulation, and methodology development in one package. MOE provides an integrated suite of powerful, yet intuitive chemistry software tools for HTS, Structure Based Design, Molecular modeling and Protein and Homology modeling as well as an embedded programming language for the rapid prototyping of scientific methods. Computational chemists, medicinal chemists and biologists use MOE in pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, and universities worldwide. CCG's headquarters are in Montréal, Canada, with offices in Köln, Germany and Cambridge, UK. For more information, visit www.chemcomp.com or send E-mail to info@chemcomp.com. In Asia, MOE is distributed by Ryoka Systems. Please visit www.rsi.co.jp/science.html or send E-mail to goto@cubs.bio.rsi.co.jp for more information. For more information see http://demo.tchpc.tcd.ie