Melanoma Genome Sequence Shows PREX2 as a Significantly Mutated Gene
Berger, Hodis et al., Nature
A team led by investigators at the Broad Institute reports having sequenced the genomes of 25 metastatic melanomas and matched germline DNA, through which it identified a "wide range of point mutation rates," and PREX2 as a significantly mutated gene in melanomas.
GPU-Based Cluster Aids Nanocarrier Simulations
January 18, 2012
A team at the University of Illinois at Chicago are using both traditional and GPU-based clusters at the National Center for Supercomputing Application (NCSA) to study nanocarriers. Like an empty bullet casing, nanocarriers could prove to provide a targeted delivery method for drugs needed to kill cancer cells.
The NCSA's clusters enabled the researchers to perform extensive atomistic molecular dynamics simulations of polyethylene glycol (PEG)-ylated phospholipid dendron-based micelles — aggregates of surfactant molecules dispersed in a liquid colloid — in which the micelles are characterized in pure water and ionic solutions.
"Our simulations are massive," says principal investigator Petr Kral. "They have up to 750,000 atoms and they need to be calculated for a relatively long time, up to 30 nanoseconds. That is why the supercomputer was very useful to us and very necessary."
While Kral and his collaborators developed their own GPU-based computer system in their lab, it lacked the power for their simulations they run. Their results were published last year in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and Chemical Communications.