ENGINEERING
Italian researchers among finalists for Gordon Bell Prize
Supercomputers study proteins responsible for cellular behavior
A simulation of the internal workings of cells has reached a sustained performance of 20,000 trillion calculations per second, or 20 petaflops, on the Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The achievement makes the code, which promises to advance both biology and medicine, one of the fastest in the world. It also earned the development team from the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), or National Research Council, of Italy a finalist position for the coveted Gordon Bell Prize.
Scientists are using supercomputers to simulate the hundreds of thousands of proteins that move and interact within cells. The understanding they gain sheds light on the factors that drive the critical activities of cells, which are the most basic units of life.
“We are simulating the crowded protein solution that is representative of our cell compartments,” said Simone Melchionna from CNR’s Institute for Chemical and Physical Processes. “If we want to target a specific cell for treatment, we need to understand how that cell works. Proteins are the most crucial cellular agents, and their behavior affects all activities that take place within the human body.”
Read the full story at https://www.olcf.ornl.gov/2013/11/06/peering-into-cells-one-gpu-at-a-time/.