Shaving Time to Test Antidotes for Nerve Agents
Monday, February 29, 2016 - 17:40
in Physics & Chemistry
Imagine you wanted to know how much energy it took to bike up a mountain, but couldn't finish the ride to the peak yourself. So, to get the total energy required, you and a team of friends strap energy meters to your bikes and ride the route in a relay, then add up your individual energy inputs. Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, are currently using a similar approach, powered by LLNL's world-class supercomputers, to simulate the energy requirements for candidate drug molecules to permeate cell membranes - shaving weeks of compound testing by determining in advance how readily they'll enter cells to perform their activity.