MetaCentrum - e-Infrastructure for Solving Structural
Biology Research Challenges
M. Kuba1, V.
Žáková2, S. Licehammer2
and J. Kmuníček1
1CESNET, z.s.p.o., Zikova 4, 160 00 Praha
6, Czech Republic
2Faculty
of Informatics, Masaryk University, Botanická 68a, 620 00 Brno,
Czech Republic
kmunicek@ics.muni.cz
Current structural biology research
comprises from many distinct areas creating huge amount of research problems as
engineering of enzymatic structures, QM/MM studies of catalysis, gaining
insight into the binding process, protein structure prediction, protein-protein
docking, multidimensional parametric studies, genome/genome evolution analysis
and many others. To be able to tackle them on appropriate level one needs
mature environment and corresponding tools. Within the Czech Republic, project MetaCentrum [1] is
currently providing such support and tools through its idea of shared
distributed resources. The sharing
of resources –
including computing
capacities, storage capacities and various scientific instruments
– is one of the fundamental
elements of the
e-Infrastructure concept.
MetaCentrum, the project of CESNET
association, therefore represents a production infrastructure (grid) composed
from facilities throughout the Czech Republic.
MetaCentrum production services
are provided to the
whole Czech academic community with applications covering
wide range of domains from chemistry, life
sciences through engineering
applications based on finite element modeling up to physics and astronomy. Current research in
MetaCentrum covers
virtualisation, security, job
scheduling and the utilization of advanced
network features provided by the CESNET2 network. Besides the computational
support the researchers can address through MetaCentrum issues concerning
storage and regular backup of vast amount of data generated during long
biomoleculer simulations. Similarly, they can benefit from available
videoconferencing facilities to routinely utilize them for remote cross-border
day-to-day collaboration.
[1]
http://meta.cesnet.cz/