Science professionals gathered in Oakland, California, on Thursday, March 17, to learn about the future of supercomputing and collaboration technology in biotechnology and bioinformatics. The one-day symposium, hosted by Science Tools Corporation, the provider of the world's only complete turn-key grid computing platform, in collaboration with ANTs Software Inc., featured the next generation of high-performance data management, processing, and workflow technology for life science professionals. In addition to other scheduled talks and demonstrations, special guest speaker Barry Bunin, Ph.D., author and world-renowned expert in the field of combinatorial chemistry, provided an overview of computational science. The ground-breaking forum featured speakers in bioinformatics and drug discovery and addressed the full integration of methods and technologies that enhance all phases of research; the tools used in the dissemination of these methods in lab and clinical practice - whenever they are developed, deployed and maintained; integration of multiple facilities collecting data; robust computing power for supercomputing and resource collaboration efficiencies; data mining, complex processing, publishing, tracking, archiving and much more. "We effectively demonstrated that software technology has evolved to ensure high-performance architecture and a vision of computational unification," said Richard Troy III, founder/chief scientist for Science Tools. "Attendees came out of the symposium understanding how our robust solutions for high-performance, scalable computing will reduce costs and create efficiencies in Drug Discovery." The International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that the grid computing portion of the high-performance computing market will grow exponentially in the next few years to $12 billion annually by 2007. The forecasted market size can be attributed to a combination of factors including the maturation and standardization of grid software, the drive for efficient use of IT infrastructure by end users, the expanded awareness of grids and the expansion of the market beyond traditional high performance computing (HPC) applications and users. Oakland-based Science Tools Corporation offers a high-performance computing platform - The BigSur System - which has been managing the super-computing activities at NASA Langley Research Center since 1997. The system drives distributed processing, automated workflow, and manages the archiving of massive data sets. Science Tools data infrastructure provides researchers and engineers an opportunity to answer questions, design products, and share resources from the desktop, in real time. Symposium attendees won two free BigSur Individual Researcher Packages, valued at $25,000 each. Contact Olga Kingrey at (510) 567-9957 for more information. ANTs Software Inc. develops high-performance data management software that delivers unparalleled performance for heavy workload applications. Its mission is to help customers achieve performance requirements while reducing hardware, software, and development costs by providing exceptional database performance.